This Valentine’s Day, slip into something wholly uncomfortable. Yes, Fifty Shades Darker is almost here, but the critics who already saw the film are talking and things do not look good. Is that surprising?
Picking up from the last film, Anastasia has broken up with her stalker lover Christian, who is is determined to win her over using his money and pensive stares. As they rekindle their romance and start finding stability in their abusive relationship, shadowy figures from Christian’s past start to show up, hell- bent on destroying their hopes for a future together.
Guy Lodge from Variety: “If the original film narrowly skated around their relationship’s misogynistic undertow by giving Anastasia a strong, searching, sometimes skeptical point of view, it’s far more difficult here to determine what she wants, or what her prior experience with Christian has made of her. Quite literally requesting to be spanked one minute, then aghast at his aggressively dominant tendencies the next, she essentially retraces her painful arc of discovery from the first film — only with selective flashes of amnesia regarding his cruellest impulses.”
Mara Reinstein from Us Weekly: “The pain is real. There are moments in Fifty Shades Darker when you might care more about Anastasia Steele’s lipstick shade than her tortured romance with cold billionaire Christian Grey…Johnson and Dornan continue to engage in racy bedroom scenes without sharing a molecule of actual heat. Even though they’re both in the buff, the scenes are not sexy…Christian’s wealth is extravagantly flaunted in every scene. (Ana even has her own chauffeur.) But the money just adds up to emotional emptiness on the screen. This is not an easy accomplishment.”
Kate Erbland from Indiewire: “Ana’s newfound liberation, frequently punctuated by Christian choosing to pleasure her first (in the world of “Fifty Shades,” oral sex is the most reliable barometer of the state of a relationship), never feels fully realized, thanks to a screenplay dominated by scenes comprised of actual nonsense where whole stretches pass with nothing of substance or believability takes place…There are intentional laughs to be found here, and the soapy shockers that take over during its action-packed third act suit the material in unexpectedly delightful ways. Finally, a “Fifty Shades” film that isn’t afraid of being fun. But fun only goes so far, particularly in a film that still seems bent on loading up somber twists to remind everyone just how “fucked up” this all is.
Do you plan on seeing it in theaters?
(image via screencap)
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