The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Seen enough
‘Fifty Shades Freed’ finishes its exploration of steamy but uninteresting ‘Grey’ matters
Fifty shades of Grey, but so few meaningful plot developments.
That’s the takeaway — not the kinky bedroom stuff or its related nudity — when you step back and look at the movie trilogy that begins with 2015’s “Fifty Shades of Grey” and concludes, thankfully, with the new “Fifty Shades Freed.”
Assuming these movies have been reasonably faithfully adapted from E. L. James’ hit book series, the English novelist has little concept of effective narrative structure. Her stories build momentum and pay off plot threads about as well as the film series’ star Dakota Johnson delivers the lines of the saga’s rather dopey heroine, Anastasia Steele.
Which is to say not well. Not well at all.
Then again, many readers — many of them females — love the “Fifty Shades” books, and the movies have done pretty darn well at the box office. No doubt they make for a fun girls’ night out, regardless of whether your group of gals is enjoying a “Fifty Shades” on a sincere or ironic level.
The latter really could be fun, especially when you consider the performance of Johnson, whose work stands out for the wrong reasons even though she’s not surrounded by much in the way of real acting talent, and the way Anastasia is written hasn’t done her any favors.
This film begins with her in a beautiful white wedding dress and making an undeniably lovely bride. After she has been bonded in matrimony to obsessive sex partner-turned-obsessive boyfriend Christian Grey (Jamie Dornan), he refers to her as “Mrs. Grey.”
“That’s me,” she responds to him, Johnson offering an almost indescribable mix of confusion and mild excitement.
When Christian is about to whisk her off to a lavish honeymoon complete with the streets of Paris and time at an oceanside resort — where the oh-so-fun Mr. Grey admonishes her for sunbathing topless, as so many of the other women are doing — they pull up to a private jet.
“You own that?” Ana asks, still, three movies in, seemingly being confused by his well-established wealth.
“WE own that,” he corrects her.
Yes, our boy Christian has come a long way since the early days of their association, when he seemed largely interested in using and abusing her, as well as making her sign a creepy contract. Now, he genuinely can’t live without her and wants to share his world with her. Awwwwww. The honeymoon is cut short because Ana’s predatory former boss, Jack Hyde (Eric Johnson), has broken into Grey Enterprises in Seattle and destroyed some files while stealing others. What does he want? Is it simply revenge against Ana or does he have some deeper, more mysterious connection to Christian, as is hinted at in the final seconds of last year’s “Fifty Shades Darker”?
It is just short of impossible to care.
(Jack, introduced in the second story, is the closest thing the trilogy has to a real antagonist, but the character is so badly conceived it’s almost impressive.)
While Ana may be in real physical danger from Jack, things are better at the publishing house where she works and where she returns to find she is no longer the acting fiction editor.
“You got a promotion,” she is told.
“I got a promotion?” she responds, ever so true to character.
From that point, with the danger of Jack hanging over the proceedings, we are treated to more iterations of Ana and Christian being madly in love — and expressing it physically — and angry with the other — and at least once expressing it in a very “Fifty Shades” way. (Lessons are best taught in Christian’s “playroom,” apparently.)
Ana does learn to be a bit more assertive in “Fifty Shades Freed,” both with Christian AND with the blond architect hottie making eyes at her new husband, so that’s something.
And, to be fair, there’s maybe a bit more story in “Freed” than in “Darker” and certainly more than in the paper-thin “Grey.” There is a big development that will test their relationship, and, of course, things with Jack come to what generously could be considered a dramatic climax.
“Freed,” like “Darker,” is directed by James Foley and written by Niall Leonard, the latter clearly being no miracle worker.
Just as Foley (“Perfect Stranger,” “Glengarry Glen Ross”) did with “Darker” — and as Sam Taylor-Johnson did before him with “Grey” — he shows us so much of Johnson that we should be able to describe more than her face to a police sketch artist at this point. Perhaps this recurring choice is made in the name of appeasing the men who are dragged along to the theater by their significant others during these Valentine’s seasons, but it seems like an odd decision nonetheless.
Don’t worry, ladies, you will get more relatively revealing looks at Dornan in the bedroom and in the shower. Oh, and there just might be some fun to be had with ice cream in the kitchen.
For what it’s worth, Dornan (“The Fall”) is the better actor of the two leads, but that’s not saying much here. He’d have to be Daniel Day-Lewis to make a real difference.
We should note that Foley has made another visually appealing film. Say this for the “Fifty Shades” franchise: It’s never hard on the eyes.
OK, (deep breath) we’re done … we think. James so far has penned reworkings of the first books as stories told from Christian’s perspective, but no film adaptations have been announced.
For now, then — and hopefully forever — “Grey” can fade to black.