By Lydia Johnson
Okay…so hear me out…
The build-up of the Fifty Shades trilogy meant advanced ticket and record-breaking Valentine’s day sales, and that was in addition to the 100 million copies sold of the first instalment alone worldwide. The challenge for the casting producers and director was then to please the book’s legion of fans without allowing the film to become a soft pornographic laughingstock while fending off the sort of ridiculous tabloid speculation typically brought on by a royal birth. It’s been nine years since the first book was released and I decided it was about time I got round to reading it…
There is some truly viscous hatred for both the book and film adaptation of this trilogy out there, which came as a genuine surprise to me while researching its reception. One stand out comment claiming that the ‘movie raped [their] intelligence’[1] seemed particularly strong willed and although I perhaps wouldn’t go quite as far as to say that ‘it’s Jane Eyre with ropes’[2], for comparing it to any classic novel as such would be blasphemous, I do believe that the critics are too focused on clouding the story in the potentially scandalous exploration of sex and BDSM both on paper and on the silver screen causing them to overlook the actual story at play here.
To see the storyline for what it truly is, one needs to strip away this judgement. Critics need to stop focusing on the ‘giggling middle-aged women’[3] and the idea that the novels are apparently ‘the worst piece of writing ever encountered’[4] and see it for what it is: a book, the success of which lies in the fantasy aspect and classic romance imagination captured by most mainstream love stories – an infatuated but commitment averse male in need of rehabilitation…hmm…sounds familiar…
Anastasia and Christian are made to rescue each other, a hero and heroine from two different worlds falling – literally in this case – into the same path with countless use of retch-inducing signifiers and clichés. Who doesn’t love a supremely dreamy damaged goods, ripe for the saving mysterious man who accompanies himself on a moonlit grand pianoforte through sonata post sex, confronted with an instantly compelling blend of vulnerability and spiky resistance with more fight found deep within her than initially thought. Remove the BDSM and you have the recipe for a classic romance novel and enthralling character development that draws you in just as countless romance novels have done throughout history. But, to remove the sex would be to remove one of the main tools of character development in this particular fantasy novel and the franchise just wouldn't be the same.
The truth is the novels are good. And the character development draws you in on each turn of a page, I mean…the character names themselves, Anastasia Steele and Christian Grey, leave little to the imagination – a vulnerable princess with a core of steel(e) meets a morally grey prince who is first and foremost Christian – but ultimately the storyline is a powerful affirmation of family values overcoming a troubled youth and the ‘saving’ of the high achieving, and emotionally closed-off.
Christian, a successful male control freak who’s compelled by an emotionally pure woman to open himself up is the basis for thousands of romances and is far less disturbing in its implications than say Pretty Woman in which the prince purchases his princess on the open market. His past involves living in a drug fuelled home, haunted and physically scarred by his birth mother’s pimp, lying by his birth mother’s dead body for 3 days before finally being discovered, put through the foster care system, and adopted into a family of wealth, only to be seduced and dominated by his new mother’s friend as a teen. A six-year hidden BDSM relationship in which he learns to deal with his emotions using a playroom while channelling everything else into the Grey Empire turns him into the successful albeit emotionally underdeveloped man who we are introduced to. He is then confronted with the one thing he is truly afraid of: the unconditional love from someone he cannot help but fall for. Honestly, by the time the two get busy in Christian’s playroom, the oomph has gone out of the whole erotic setup, the focus instead having shifted to the happiness of Grey’s family at finally being allowed to meet Christian’s first girlfriend, in fact Christian and Ana have already made love, sharing and sleeping in the same bed by this point. This is the first time Christian has ever done this, foreshadowing the inevitability that Ana will finally be the one to break Christian’s spell and ‘save’ him, the story in which one is actually enthralled with in the novel rather than the focus being on the ‘kinky fuckery’[5]. Christian is, obviously, only left to face two pieces of his past; two revenge seeking maniacs set on ruining him and Ana. This means this novel steps up to involve car chases, kidnapping, sabotage, arson, blackmail, and gun point situations, and you thought the story was missing something.
Anastasia is no walk over though and gives as good as she gets, if not better, and it is this rebellion, not just her submission, that Christian finds attractive, sparking a sense of humanity to his ever-cracking troubled personality. For Anastasia, her journey literally starts with her looking in a mirror, reflecting her own journey of self-discovery, embarking on a post-college life while at the same time experiencing a physical awakening that she never would have imagined while troubled by the idea of finding where in the world she fits in best. The classic virginal heroine, open and vulnerable, smart and informed but by no means a fool, practically irresistible to a man with a compulsion to dominate. Ana embarks on her own journey, developing from a ‘blithering simpleton who makes the ruinous error of thinking the work fuck is an epithet’[6] into a strong lead who, albeit succumbing to Grey’s ‘persuasions’, isn’t afraid to portray a more realistic point of view of someone thrust into Grey’s world. She questions and challenges Grey repeatedly, calling him and his desires out, feeding off the confidence found when conversing over the internet. The email conversations play a huge role in the character development of both main characters, playing off their relationship throughout in, perhaps, a more intimate way than either intends, only again reflecting the fact that neither truly understands what they are getting themselves in for and yet get drawn into it further with each reply.
Honestly, I love it. Maybe I’m still young and naive enough to fall for a good love story, and I did; I fell for the journey of the characters, all of them, even Taylor had a good one. I watched the films before deciding to read the books. After reading the books I realised that the movies were passable, but they barely scratched the surface of the relationships written and explored on the page; the very thing that I love about the trilogy. They missed out pretty much all the email conversations, the development of Taylor and Gail, particularly their relationships with Ana. They even miss out Katherine’s brother altogether and the further encounters with Leila, let alone the storyline of Ana’s and Jose’s fathers. Grey’s therapist and the important role he plays in understanding Christian is forgotten. The film glances into important notions, such as the Charlie Tango balloon, and the interest in art and written literature, without bothering to reflect their true messages and key roles in the developing relationship between the two main characters to an extent that the films may as well not have bothered. They also miss out on the impact of two defining characteristics of Christian and Ana: Christian being a control freak, and Ana not enjoying all the money that his world consists of, which play significant roles of being challenged and broken down by the other, portraying the stages of growth each has throughout the trilogy.
What I believe is truly the saving grace of the books, the journeys of each character involved, are almost completely side-lined meaning that the films took the decision to rest more on the sexual relationship than I believe the directors and producers were ever prepared to consider and admit to. This ultimately ruins the story line for they don’t commit fully to all the sex written on the page even after making this choice, leaving all aspects only partly explored on the screen, as one critic put it ‘you get dirtier talk in most action movies, and more genitalia in a TED talk on Renaissance sculpture’[7]. This outcome can do nothing but leave witnesses feeling cheated by the films from truly exploring any aspect of the books. I disagree that ‘we are left with but a horrible book on a first-grade level and the resulting bad movie’ [8] but I do understand that the movies are not great.
Each film does hold some good cinematography though, including some amazing settings and destinations, props, wardrobe and an incredible soundtrack to accompany it – even the opening credit use of ‘I put a spell on you’, sets ‘the right hot-and-bothered tone’[9] while drawing you into the question of who is casting a spell on whom - in fact, there are those who believe that ‘the great cinematographic is a ready-made cornerstone for the fact that fifty shades is a far better film than it was a book’[10]. Again, this is definitely not the truth but there are a few very clever decisions made that do reflect certain aspects of the books and artful filming and directing. Obviously, the sex scenes play an important role in the on-screen adaptation, but the camera work during these scenes is clever to remind us of their relationship. Ana, the Submissive bares all from most angles meanwhile Grey, the Dominant, keeps the camera from straying to where he doesn’t want it, subconsciously reminding the viewers of who is in control. Compared to the books, however, even when there is an opportunity to get white-hot, the movie sequences stay ‘well within the bounds of vanilla mainstream taste’[11], in fact, the most scandalous, so to speak, aspects of this BDSM relationship only flit across the screen briefly during Ana’s investigations into Grey’s world in the first film. The funniest scene, and arguably the sexiest for some, has the duo sitting at either end of a glass boardroom table while Ana and Grey discuss the contract. Again, it is the camera work here which only adds and amplifies the situation, the use of wide-angle shots, dark lighting and close and personal acting shots ramp up the intensity of the scene.
One thing nearly all the critics agree on is that Johnson saves the films, and I do agree. I think Johnson does a truly admirable job at capturing Anastasia and all her quirks from the page onto the big screen. With a lot of the films being torn apart, it is ‘the salvage job of Anastasia that has been claimed to be the films biggest asset’[12] and fair enough, I don’t have any qualms with her portrayal and rather can’t think of anyone else doing a better job. The hate falls onto Dornan from the critics though. Although being a precise physical match for the fantasy role, people argue that ‘the acting was appalling’[13]. All those commenting are unafraid to point out that original Grey choice, Charlie Hunnan, got cold feet and bailed, praising him for this decision and damning Dornan for having the confidence to follow through with the character. I only agree with this to a certain extent. Up against Johnson’s performance, Dornan falls short, sure. The true masterpiece of his acting skills is only unleashed during the scene when Grey is whipping Ana and getting immense pleasure out of it or when he finally cries at Ana's bedside in the hospital, but I also believe that the film never intended to get as totally under his skin as the books do. In order to portray the character Grey is, the films need to recoil, ‘with a shiver of uncertainty’[14], while the viewers get to grips with his predilections in a way that is so much easier to do so on a page of a fantasy novel. So I do have sympathy for Dornan, and I don’t believe at all that his acting career will be stunted by this franchise. I still believe that Dornan managed to admirably portray what he could on screen as he was directed to do so, while the growth in his own confidence and in the character’s over the trilogy is more than evident. As such, I still think that the movies and character portrayals in them are good, even Rita Ora just about manages to pull it off.
If one is looking to truly understand the heart-felt, romantic fantasy story that is ‘50 shades of fucked up’[15], then one needs to read the books, and read them with a clearer understanding that this is an all-too-familiar, character developing, love story with the, apparently taboo, topic of sexual exploration being but a tool to this. Perhaps even an element of viewers needing to overcome the overshadowing judgement of the 50 Shades of Grey trilogy. Do this, and you may well find yourself under the spell of E. L. James after all.
[1] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2322441/reviews [2] https://www.vulture.com/2015/02/fifty-shades-review-dakota-johnson-is-superb.html [3] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2322441/reviews [4] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2322441/reviews [5] E. L. James, (2012), Fifty Shades of Darker [6] https://www.telegraph.co.uk/film/fifty-shades-of-grey/review/ [7] https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/02/23/pain-gain [8] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2322441/reviews
[9] https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/fifty-shades-grey-film-review-770402 [10] https://www.telegraph.co.uk/film/fifty-shades-of-grey/review/ [11] https://www.telegraph.co.uk/film/fifty-shades-of-grey/review/ [12] https://www.telegraph.co.uk/film/fifty-shades-of-grey/review/ [13] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2322441/reviews [14] https://www.telegraph.co.uk/film/fifty-shades-of-grey/review/ [15] E. L. James, (2011), Fifty Shades of Grey