After a weekend of freezing my face off in 50 Shades of Maritime Weather, I'm trying to divert the "blahs" Fifty Shades of Grey left me feeling last night by focusing on what a good sport Mr. Hockey Coach is since he sat through the movie with me and only made a couple of sarcastic remarks... and also stayed awake. In any case, we braved the absolutely horrific roads and hit up the movie I feel as though everyone has been talking about. Was it sexy? To borrow from Ms. Steele: No, sir.
I read the books when they first hit the shelves, and soccer moms were elbowing one another to read about the sexy Christian Grey and the doe-eyed Anastasia Steele. I'd be lying if I said I didn't at least kind of enjoy them. Perhaps I was too horny to truly comprehend what was happening as I flipped from page to page. It was the first time I'd ever read erotica and while I found it a little too corny from time to time, I read all three books over two weeks.
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I'm not going to be a Sally Spoiler and ruin it all for you if you haven't read the books or seen the movie and plan to. What I will tell you is this: Anastasia Steele is a virgin in university and Christian Grey is a sexy, successful business man with a playroom in his badass condo. He becomes obsessed with her, she falls in love with him, they have "vanilla" sex and engage in BDSM and she's torn between wanting a boyfriend who's normal and wanting Mr. Grey.
The Twilight fan fiction aspect completely eluded me from page to page, but it slapped me across the face in theatres. Some of the scenes were almost identical to those in the Twilight Saga (yeah, yeah - I own it on DVD...), which I should have seen coming but there you have it. The acting was OK - I'll give credit where it's due and admit that it's probably really hard to act out the especially ridiculous lines and scenes.
I went in with a roller coaster of expectations. From a purely cinematic point of view, it wasn't as bad as I thought it might be but it wasn't as good as I would have liked it to be. I was kind of hoping for a little bit of sexy, and instead I left feeling a little... slimy.
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I can get behind the idea of BDSM - though it's not my cup of tea - but I can't get into the perpetuation that a woman's body belongs to her partner. The overbearing, possessive nature of Mr. Grey is uncomfortable to watch playing out in front of your eyes and I found myself cringing as he showed up in Ms. Steele's bedroom or while she's out for lunch with her mother. Scene to scene, I almost felt as though I was watching an abusive relationship slowly unfold.
There is a line that separates BDSM and abuse, and as far as I'm concerned Fifty Shades of Grey has blurred it. The question of consent is there from beginning to end. As a control freak, the idea of being "dominated" between the sheets is one thing... but being ordered around in my daily life is another. As the mother of a little boy and as a woman, I hope this movie can really drive home the importance of consent because that's what it all boils down to.
Image Source: Universal Pictures
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