Fifty Shades Freed

The allure of two people, the romance they share and the somewhat awkward sexual escapades in BDSM (Bondage, Discipline, Sadism and Masochism). Plus, don’t forget the clunky Twilight-esque story in which this “forbidden love” is being told. Yes, we’re back to the confusing relationship between Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele from EL James’s bestselling Fifty Shades trilogy. While the world was captivated by the novels (named “mommy porn” by many), it was inevitable that Hollywood would snatch up the rights to produce a cinematic representation of James’s work, bringing us 2015’s Fifty Shades of Grey and 2017’s Fifty Shades Darker. Both films, while negatively criticised by critics and viewers alike, were able to find success at the box office. Now, Fifty Shades Freed, the third and final chapter in the trilogy, comes thundering in to conclude the series. Is it worth seeing?

After being proposed to, Anastasia Steele (Dakota Johnson) and Christian Grey (Jamie Dornan) finally “tie the knot”, celebrating their wedding in front of their close friends and family. The newlywed couple then go off on their honeymoon, jet-setting to the world’s most romantic locations and enjoying the perks of being married. However, while their sexual vigour is fully charged, Ana and Christian hit some road bumps in the early days of their marriage, particularly when she defies Christian’s orders. While Ana must grow accustomed to living the more privileged life of Mrs Grey, he must learn to live with his wife’s independence, as she chooses to remain a fiction editor for a local publishing house. However, when Ana finds out she’s pregnant, it will either make or break this newly minted marriage. Elsewhere, Jack Hyde (Eric Johnson), Ana’s disgruntled former boss, breaks into the offices of Christian’s company and hatches a plot between the now Mr and Mrs Grey to reclaim something that he believes rightfully belongs to him.

Directed by James Foley, Fifty Shades Freed, despite having a good song selection and slick technical presentation, fails to impress, floundering with a lot of the same negative and problematic issues from the first two movies, These include a weak narrative, silly writing and sillier spoken dialogue, still tamed, “watered-down” sex scenes, clunky characters (both in their development and in our understanding them), an unconvincing love interest, and an unsatisfying conclusion. With the three films completed, the cinematic trilogy shows that not all bestselling literary material translates well to the silver screen. In short, Fifty Shades Freed is flat out a terrible and downright uninspiring conclusion to its already equally bad (and laughable) predecessors. More importantly, the series ends in the same way that it began: trying to convince its viewers that the awkward sexual courtship of Anastasia Steele and Christian Grey is worth caring about, which it isn’t.

Jason Kerin

Fifty Shades Freed is released nationwide on 9^th February 2018.

Watch the trailer for Fifty Shades Freed here: