Review:
"Fifty Shades Freed"
Release Date: Feb. 9, 2017
Rating: R Running Time: 118 minutes The Fifty Shades franchise is like sex with a stranger: you never know what to expect when the lights go down, the clothes come off, and the handcuffs come out. Fifty Shades of Grey was an awkward and embarrassing disaster that failed to truly raise eyebrows with its kinky bedroom antics. Fifty Shades Darker was much looser and certainly willing to shed its inhibitions, but it incited more laugher than moans of pleasure. Now comes the anticlimactic Fifty Shades Freed, which leaves you hanging after 105 minutes of unimaginative foreplay and rinks of the desperate attempt to add a hint of danger to the encounter. Fifty Shades Freed begins with Anastasia Steele (Dakota Johnson) and Christian Grey (Jamie Dornan) exchanging poorly written wedding vows and goes downhill from there. Their honeymoon in the South of France is cut short when Jack Hyde (Eric Johnson)—the book editor who sexually assaulted Anastasia in Fifty Shades Darker—breaks into Grey Industries to steal invaluable personal and business information from Christian’s files. The rest of Fifty Shades Freed alternates between the newlyweds fending off Jack’s threats and engaging in sex that’s beautifully lit but tediously staged by director James Foley. The pitiful attempt to recall the infamous kitchen love scene from 9 ½ Weeks—this time involving ice cream—is beyond vanilla. (Curiously, 9 ½ Weeks star Kim Basinger, who appeared as Christian’s former lover in Fifty Shades Darker, is absent from this threequel). Oh, and Fifty Shades Freed perpetuates the double standard established by Fifty Shades of Grey by requiring the game Johnson to engage in full frontal nudity while allowing Dornan to get away with just a butt shot or two. Foley and screenwriter Niall Leonard, who is married to Fifty Shades author E.L. James, unfortunately retain the male gaze of Fifty Shades Darker despite this being a franchise that chronicles a woman’s journey from sexual awakening to wedded bliss. Even in Fifty Shades Freed, Anastasia is often reduced to a possession that Christian now owns and attempts in vain to lock away in the many big and beautiful homes he owns. Yes, there are times when Anastasia establishes herself as an independent woman, but her efforts are always undercut by the needlessly jealous and overly concerned Christian. (Johnson may imbue Anastasia with a quiet presence but she’s always brought an assertiveness to Anastasia, and it’s never more evident than in Fifty Shades Freed.) While Anastasia has evolved over the course of three films—especially in the bedroom, where she has gone from hesitate submissive to sexual partner—Christian remains the same controlling narcissist with severe abandonment issues that are never adequately addressed or partially resolved in Fifty Shades Freed. Given that Christian serves as the personification of male toxicity, it’s hard to understand why the Fifty Shades franchise believes the relationship between Anastasia and Christian is honest and healthy. Even Fifty Shades realizes that Christian isn’t grateful for what he has until it is almost taken snatched away from him. Dornan remains as uptight and closed-off as ever as Christian, so he fails to provide a glimpse of a husband who is able to engage in a long, lasting and giving marriage. Sure, Christian can shower Anastasia with gifts—and why does Anastasia always seems surprised when she discovers Christian owns a flashy car or a private plane?—but there’s no indication that he could ever meet Anastasia’s emotional needs. So the Greys remain more than just a work in progress before the end credits roll. Christian is as much a reclamation project as he was when he first began to dominant Anastasia. But Fifty Shades Freed doesn’t worry too much about this. It desperately wants a happy ending for the Greys. So it gives the Greys a happy ending. But it’s not a happy ending that Greys have earned. Robert Sims Aired: Feb. 8, 2017 Web site: http://www.fiftyshadesmovie.com |
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