Fifty Shades of Fun

So I finally watched the Fifty Shades of Grey - adapted from a work by E.L. James - movie yesterday. And I was pleasantly disappointed. In fact, I watched in two days: fifteen minutes - (till the commercial) - the first day, and the rest the second. Because who wants to see violence against women, really!! In fact there was no real psychological violence, which is the killer. And the sex scene violence was pure Hollywood, that is, suggested in an unrealistic way. And it was work for me to watch, because for someone well past menopause, sex-centered fiction is just plain silly.

Like mosty reviewers: Loved the music, felt it passed quickly (hated for it to end), and was wondering why the technology wasn't exploited. For heaven's sake, a mysterious multimillionaire in Seattle with a McBook!? More pointedly, Christian's game room was totally archaic and well beneath the current level of social intelligence. Wire that room, Christian. The folks at M are playing with all kinds of virtual reality...

Seriously, what is this movie about. Because women's romance fiction suffers from a central flaw: it is totally predictable, a foregone conclusion that the couple will live happily thereafter. The prose then has to create interest by flogging the old pleasure center of the reader, making her live through a successfull courtship. Which for women involves security and romance: she bargains her loyalty for financial security, he pays back with ...whatever. From her point of view: no more bad dates. Whew!

This is how the movie is more tame than the book, which put the accent on female desire. But the story is full of sleek decor and grand toys, like the helicopter ride. Lovely.

The character of Anastasia is quite likeable, and the actors perform well. I do not see that there was a lack of chemistry between the two protagonists, as many have argued. Quite the contrary, I could see them as a real couple, and a tight one at that. Indeed it sometimes felt embarassing, like a voyeuristic intrusion into the lives of one's friends.

I am definitely a taker for whatever comes next, because the storyline is sitting on two centers of interest: the psychologial issues that give the relationsship its hard turn, and the work context that might be feeding Christian's need for hard. A clever note: Anastasia is totally at ease in Christian's moneyed world, the very stuff of good soap opera.

https://youtu.be/XgpQ_xE30Ao