About two-thirds of the way through Fifty Shades of Grey , Anastasia Steele stumbles upon Christian Gray working out in his home gym. She stood in the doorway, watching approvingly as he did pull-ups, and then (somehow without noticing she was standing in front of him), Christian put his hands on the pommel horse and slowly pushed himself higher, Higher, until his body is suspended in mid-air, looking like a more impressive, muscular version of the plank trend from a few years ago. I've been asking myself an important question about this movie before I even started watching it: "Is Fifty Shades of Gray self-aware?" But it was during the pommel horse scene that this question was on my mind Screaming louder.
I don't know why what happened in this movie. Of course, the plot is based on the book, but when it comes to situations that are specific to the movie - like the way a line is delivered or the way a shot is framed, or how one character tells another she has a cup of tea for her, but then weird Wasn't giving it to her - I don't really know if the filmmakers were "involved" in that. Should all of this be taken seriously, or is there some consciousness behind the scenes that is aware of this madness? I actually don't really know that this is my favorite thing about this movie.
That said, the movie isn't good - at least not in the conventional sense. But it's incredibly bad and good - like the highest level of bad and good - which is what I expected from Fifty Shades of Grey , and when I saw it I found it was just boring. Fifty Shades of Gray made me laugh countless times, scream in one particularly shocking moment, and had Chrissy Teigen face the screen and loudly say "Ugh, I hate this" more than once. But I don't hate Fifty Shades of Grey . In fact, I enjoyed the experience and won't stop talking about this movie to anyone who will listen. (As much as I'll talk about The Lake House with anyone, it's my favorite. Side note: Please talk to me about The Lake House .)
While the pommel horse scene was a turning point for me, there were many, many instances before and (mostly) after that scene that made me believe the filmmakers might be joking - and then immediately made me question myself again. let's see.
#teamselfawareness
The team self-awareness hit was a series of small moments that occurred during the two hours Mr. Gray and I were together. Here are the main batsmen:
- pommel horse scene
- Anna threw a drink in Kim Basinger's face and then looked absolutely shocked that she did it - just like the rest of us
- Kim Basinger was slapped immediately after having a glass of wine
- Multiple long shots of Kim Basinger glaring at Anna like in a soap opera
- never mind. Everything involving Kim Basinger's character
- The Chronicles of Riddick poster is the frame for an entire scene about Christian's dead mother
- Christian told Ana only that his mother was an addict who died when he was four, and he told Ana to let her "fill in the blanks."
- Every time it feels like the actors pause and wait for the audience to laugh
- Anna asks a street vendor for a keychain gift box, and the vendor has a
- Christian disappears and then shows up at home immediately after a TV news report that the other characters are watching says he has been found
All of these moments elicited laughter from the audience at my screenings, but it's hard to convince myself that they weren't intentional. I mean, you wouldn't accidentally put a Chronicles of Riddick poster in the back of Christian's head when he was telling Ana about his dead mother, and Ana was part of the reason he was attracted to her, Because he likes to punish women who look like his dead mother...
Whoa, kid, let’s just dive right into why it might not be self-aware, shall we?
#Teamhas no self-awareness
If the thing about his dead mother wasn't suggestive enough, I think the film might not be as self-aware as the moments listed above suggest, mostly because the subject matter is so heavy and it would be weird to be around it on purpose time. This film includes:
- Anna's boss sexually threatens her and she uses self-defense to escape from him
- Christian calls himself a sadist and says he enjoys punishing women who look like his biological mother
- Christian has an incredible amount of control over Ana and in some cases she just ignores it like normal
- A stalker with serious psychological issues who threatens to kill Ana, who can only be subdued by the power Christian has over her
In short, a lot.
Also, some moments that clearly shouldn't be tongue-in-cheek are not handled very well either. Can we talk about Christian Gray saying he and Ana would pick out her engagement ring together and then he would surprise her anyway ? Why doesn't the movie let this moment sum up how far they've come? Why ?
On top of that , the movie is based on a series of very popular books, so for die-hard fans of those books, laughing at them would be a bit alienating. More importantly, the script for "Fifty Shades of Grey" was written by Niall Leonard, the husband of EL James, the author of "Fifty Shades of Grey" . I don’t think he intentionally included anything to make fun of the story itself. Then again, he's not the guy responsible for the Chronicles of Riddick posters or anything like that, so there are a lot of touching bits here that would have been ridiculous if they had, in fact, been (I'm still breathing).
In the end, I'm leaning toward the fact that the movie isn't as self-aware as some scenes would have you hope, but I also think it's best that we don't know for sure. Whether the movie is intentionally bad for good or accidentally bad for good, when it comes to a bad-for-good movie, the best part is the complete incident and having it all told after the fact. They were taken home by another busy editor and I on the subway, text messages we sent after we got back to our respective apartments, and a drunken rant I gave to my boyfriend (who hadn’t even seen the movie) Part of what made the experience so fun.
Just like Anna doesn't know what those silver balls are for (you'll see...), the unknown brings intrigue. Personally, I felt that Fifty Shades of Gray let me down because I was someone who watched it purely out of curiosity and an unquenchable desire for cheesy movies. If you're like me and the two-year gap between the first and second movies made you curious again, then check this one out. Then consider Dakota Johnson bangs. Then spends the next few days complaining that Ana and Christian's relationship is extremely unhealthy. Let me tell you, the price per wear of this thing is unbelievable.
