Jane Fonda, Diane Keaton, Candice Bergen and Mary Steenburgen are the main cast of the Bill Holderman-directed and co-written comedy, Book Club. A story about four women whose lives are forever changed after reading E.L. James’s erotic fiction phenomenon, 50 Shades of Grey.
I’m often drawn to stories of friendships between women in later life, especially if comedy is involved. My fingers are crossed that I’ll enjoy this close to as much as I do Grace & Frankie.
Andy Garcia, Craig T. Nelson, Don Johnson, Alicia Silverstone and Richard Dreyfuss also star.
Everyone I’ve met who has watched any of the Fifty Shades movies knows that they’re the kind of films unlikely to win, let alone be nominated for any seriously prestigiousindustry awards. There may be others out there who think otherwise; I just haven’t met them.
A friend warned me to steer clear of the Fifty Shades books because ‘they’re not well written.’ I’ve wisely heeded her advice. Yet, the reason I’ve gone ahead and watched the second movie, Fifty Shades Darker, even though there was very little in the first instalment that proved particularly memorable, is… my mild curiosity about Christian Grey. Particularly, how his ‘challenges’ will be explained. I’m a sucker for trying to understand people, you see.
In the movie, some light is shed on Christian’s past, though nothing especially memorable sticks out. We meet a few of the women that have been in Grey’s life before Anastasia Steele (Johnson). There’s more of all the stuff people couldn’t stop talking about in the first movie. A few other things happen. Things that you’d need to watch the movie to find out about because I just remembered how nonsensical I found most of it. I even admit that I literally uttered the words, ‘What is this nonsense?’
This time, directed by James Foley, Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan did the best they could with the material they had. I guess this period of their careers can be labelled as the ‘laughing all the way to the bank as people criticise their movie’ phase. At this point, I really have to wonder if the Fifty Shades films have become that thing I love to hate. Maybe.
Also, everyone knows that ‘haters’ are often fans, albeit confused or in denial. If I’m a fan, I’m mostly a fan of how the writer E.L. James has succeeded regardless of her apparently questionable writing ability.
Fifty Shades Darker; watch it if you must. But only if you must.
Fifty Shades Of Grey (2015), Jamie Dornan (Christian Grey)
Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan star in Fifty Shades Of Grey, the Sam Taylor Johnson directed film adaptation of E.L. James’ best selling book of the same name.
There has been plenty of well-publicised negative feedback about the quality of writing in the book and subsequently, the film. Yet, all that seems to have caused minimal damage to the movie’s overall commercial success.
Clearly the story of the masochistic relationship between a university student (Anastasia Steele) and a handsome, rich businessman (Christian Grey) is just too appealing. Thanks to some rather steamy content and a definitely mysterious Mr. Grey; a man audiences can’t help but be desperate to understand.
For me, there are no particularly stellar performances in the film. I remember laughter escaping my lips in response to some of the dialogue. Had the book been better written, perhaps the movie would be too. Nevertheless, by the end, I did find myself quite curious about the tortured Mr. Grey. Though absolutely not curious enough to ever pick up the book(s), in the event that the follow-up films were to be cancelled.
Fifty Shades Of Grey (2015), Jamie Dornan, Dakota Johnson
Whether it’s the love story, sexy content or even the dialogue, if you’re planning to watch, I hope you’ll find one or two things in the film that are worth the experience.
Oddly enough, my favourite thing about Fifty Shades Of Grey is probably not what one might expect. For it is the following line delivered by Christian Grey within the first ten minutes.
The Movie My Life 