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Review

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This review may contain spoilers.

"Fifty Shades Freed" (2018) directed by James Foley is the climactic (literally) finale to this best selling franchise on the screen. I liked it far more than the previous one but it obviously does not reach the heights of the original.

Ana (Dakota Johnson) is now married to Christian (Jamie Dornan) and has taken in his last name. Mrs. Grey is promoted at her job and seems to be handling the adjustments to her new exotic lifestyle fairly well. Ana's creepy former boss Jack (Eric Johnson) begins to stalk and even assault her, and so their security team is increased and they research into Jack's past to try and find out why he is doing this. Ana accidentally becomes pregnant and it creates a wedge in their relationship since Christian is worried she will choose the baby over him in order of importance.

Fifty Shades Freed was a meandering slice of life, but I personally enjoyed it quite a bit so I didn't mind the faults too much. It was genuinely nice to see Ana & Christian get their happy ending even if only temporarily (expected to be temporary though since the film has to inject drama and problems to continue forward). The fantasy element of it is also nice, as most of us will never get to experience the lives of two individuals like this. While it was still quite vanilla, this is the most sensual and steamy of the 3 films in my opinion which is interesting considering it's our third time seeing these two hit the hay together.

Where the film loses me is it's complete lack of movement, and when it does finally move, it's for a bizarre kidnapping story. I never really thought of Ana as a "heroine", so seeing her play this new part was a bit odd to me. I understand the necessity for drama, but reverting both characters back to child-like behaviors was really frustrating and felt forced (Christian with the edging, Ana with the silent treatment). This was also the first film where Christian was the "good guy" in the relationship, and I was actually bothered by Ana's actions and choice of words more than once, particularly when she is on the phone with Christian after randomly withdrawing $5 million in cash, and refusing to answer his question of whether she was going to leave him or not . . . I think their dynamic works more effectively when Ana is the innocent one attempting to change Christian's poor behavioral traits one step at a time rather than completely reversing the dynamic last minute.

Fifty Shades Freed is the most steamy and most tense one yet, but some decisions with the character's actions and choices of words felt unrealistic and forced for the sake of over the top drama; I also wanted to mention that Ana getting so fumed after snooping on Christian's phone was wrong of her since he is a childhood victim with a link to his abuser, and Christian's concern about the baby was absolutely justified and he is in fact correct that mothers value their children more than their partner, and it was also strange to me that the couple never even addressed the possibility of giving the child away or any other routes whatsoever. Despite all of this annoyance, I still ultimately enjoyed the film and was happy to see the conclusion.

#rainynights #movies #fiftyshades