Friday, February 10, 2017

50 Shades Darker: Exactly What You Want for Valentine's Day

I was lucky enough to go to screening, since I edited Fifty Writers on Fifty Shades of Grey (still a really good book in case you still have questions about why this novel series took the world by storm (https://www.amazon.com/Fifty-Writers-Shades-Grey-ebook/dp/B00A6D5C2C/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1486711611&sr=1-1&keywords=fifty+writers+on+fifty+shades+of+grey).  I was honestly a little trepedacious about the second film, because I knew the original director had been fired, and there was talk about a distinct lack of chemistry between Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan.  And all sorts of meddling by EL James.

But the movie is good in the way that Lindt chocolates and Nora Roberts novels are good - consistent pleasure givers, not necessarily the best you've ever had, but delightful nonetheless.

The movie holds no surprises.  It follows the plot of the second novel in the series to a T, right down to the Ben Wa balls and the lemon martini thrown in Mrs. Robinson's face (one of my favorite scenes in both the book and the novel).  And Kim Basinger as Mrs. Robinson is worth the price of admission alone.

And because I knew what was coming and what to expect, I could focus on other things that delighted me like the fact that Christian Grey owns an Edvard Munch Vampire painting which he hangs in his bedroom (it's a female vampire) or that the publishing talk in the movie is definitely a fantasy.

So if you loved or liked the books, ignore the bad reviews (because there are many of them), and go.

Personally, I am looking forward to the third installment, so I can binge watch the movies together.