Hello lovelies, it's quite topical that my last post was about sexual abuse and violence awareness week as this week we're talking all things Fifty Shades Darker. This movie was supposed to show a transformation in Ana and Christian's relationship as, at the end of the last film, Ana left christian due to his strange pleasure he got from abusing her. So I believe many critics were expecting a film they could focus on as an artistic piece or a run of the mill romantic movie but Fifty Shades once again demonstrated many abusive tropes.
Before we dive into the nitty gritty I'll start off with what was good about it. The only good thing about this movie for me were the actors who played Leila and Jack. We'll start with Leila played by Bella Heathcote. This character, who gets less airtime in the movie than she does in the books, makes a great portrayal of Christian's deranged ex sub. Her accent is believeable (the actress is an Austrailian actress) and she does have a creepy vibe about her. The only downfall of this charaters lies with the writers as her climatic scene seemed to be skimmed over and forgotten which is a shame as this was, in the books, where not only Ana but the readers saw the other side of Christian, the dominant.
Now onto Jack who was played by Eric Johnson. Without giving any spoilers away, Johnson conveys a chilling and intimidating character who at first we as an audience believe to be a good guy. With his climatic scene in this movie, he will be back for the third movie, he made me feel scared for Ana. He really grew into this character and I can't wait to see what he does with the storyline in the third movie.
Now we come onto the bad parts about this movie, and let's face it there's a lot of them. The characters of Taylor and Mrs Jones are in the books quite a lot and help to shape the character of Christian as they are some of the very few people who know him well. However, in the films all Taylor has been allowed to say is 'Miss Steele' and 'sir' about a million times which is not needed and quite frankly annoying. Mrs Jones was not in the first film and in this one she only has one line which was disappointing to me as I thought they were key characters for Ana to have an insight into Christian's life.
The issue with this film is the abuse that takes place. At the beginning of the film, although Christian is abusive by trying to order her food for her, ignoring her explicit wishes and invading her private life, Ana sticks up for herself and does not let Christian bully her as he did in the first movie and book. However, there are some places in the film where he emotionally and mentally abuses her that are glossed over and just treated as one of Christian's quirks. At one point Christian gives Ana $24'000 for her car that he sold, she does not want it and refuses the money. As Christian doesn't get his way he rings his assistant and gets her to deposit the money directly into Ana's account, but how did Christian get Ana's bank details? She has never given them to him, he has exercised his power as a businessman to obtain her personal information which is controlling behaviour that should not be tolerated in a relationship. In the scene Ana says 'how did you get my bank information?' Christian ignores her and the issue isn't addressed again within the film. The major issue I have with this portrayal is that although adults such as myself and the rest of the 18+ audience in the cinema would spot this was a worrying behaviour to have in a relationship younger audiences might not. When the movie comes out on DVD or an audience under the official rating streams it online they may take this as normal behaviour due to its portrayal in the movie. It's not just on this occasion either, there are many times in the film where things are glossed over. This is evident as I read these books the first time when I was 17 and I didn't spot the abuse until the second time I read it recently.You would think after getting the backlash from critics and charities surrounding relationship abuse the writers, producers and director would change certain aspects of the Twilight fan fiction to eradicate the abuse but it is still at the heart of this film which is wrong.
Due to this abuse and the disappointing characters I'm giving this film a 2/10.
LMR
Before we dive into the nitty gritty I'll start off with what was good about it. The only good thing about this movie for me were the actors who played Leila and Jack. We'll start with Leila played by Bella Heathcote. This character, who gets less airtime in the movie than she does in the books, makes a great portrayal of Christian's deranged ex sub. Her accent is believeable (the actress is an Austrailian actress) and she does have a creepy vibe about her. The only downfall of this charaters lies with the writers as her climatic scene seemed to be skimmed over and forgotten which is a shame as this was, in the books, where not only Ana but the readers saw the other side of Christian, the dominant.
Now onto Jack who was played by Eric Johnson. Without giving any spoilers away, Johnson conveys a chilling and intimidating character who at first we as an audience believe to be a good guy. With his climatic scene in this movie, he will be back for the third movie, he made me feel scared for Ana. He really grew into this character and I can't wait to see what he does with the storyline in the third movie.
Now we come onto the bad parts about this movie, and let's face it there's a lot of them. The characters of Taylor and Mrs Jones are in the books quite a lot and help to shape the character of Christian as they are some of the very few people who know him well. However, in the films all Taylor has been allowed to say is 'Miss Steele' and 'sir' about a million times which is not needed and quite frankly annoying. Mrs Jones was not in the first film and in this one she only has one line which was disappointing to me as I thought they were key characters for Ana to have an insight into Christian's life.
The issue with this film is the abuse that takes place. At the beginning of the film, although Christian is abusive by trying to order her food for her, ignoring her explicit wishes and invading her private life, Ana sticks up for herself and does not let Christian bully her as he did in the first movie and book. However, there are some places in the film where he emotionally and mentally abuses her that are glossed over and just treated as one of Christian's quirks. At one point Christian gives Ana $24'000 for her car that he sold, she does not want it and refuses the money. As Christian doesn't get his way he rings his assistant and gets her to deposit the money directly into Ana's account, but how did Christian get Ana's bank details? She has never given them to him, he has exercised his power as a businessman to obtain her personal information which is controlling behaviour that should not be tolerated in a relationship. In the scene Ana says 'how did you get my bank information?' Christian ignores her and the issue isn't addressed again within the film. The major issue I have with this portrayal is that although adults such as myself and the rest of the 18+ audience in the cinema would spot this was a worrying behaviour to have in a relationship younger audiences might not. When the movie comes out on DVD or an audience under the official rating streams it online they may take this as normal behaviour due to its portrayal in the movie. It's not just on this occasion either, there are many times in the film where things are glossed over. This is evident as I read these books the first time when I was 17 and I didn't spot the abuse until the second time I read it recently.You would think after getting the backlash from critics and charities surrounding relationship abuse the writers, producers and director would change certain aspects of the Twilight fan fiction to eradicate the abuse but it is still at the heart of this film which is wrong.
Due to this abuse and the disappointing characters I'm giving this film a 2/10.
LMR
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