By R. Paul Dhillon
The much hyped rough-sex romanced 50 Shades of Grey is the antithesis of Romance or it’s romance for Sadists and those who enjoy the art of beating their partners.
Of course the makers of the biggest box office hit on Valentine and President’s Day long weekend in the U.S. have tried their best to add elements of a love story, which at its centre is a twisted tale of lust and bondage featuring a wounded BDSM loving hero who gets off on Dominating his lover, having himself being subjected to being a Submissive when he was a boy and after having a painful childhood as possibly an orphan and perhaps one who was himself abused.
Those who have read the books know better than me but the film tries to pack in much to explain the reasons why Christian Grey ( the hero or villain) is so screwed up. And it falls on the heroine Anastasia Steele to save this monster of a man.
She is attracted to this mysterious billionaire bachelor playboy but soon finds that he is no Knight in a shining armor but in fact he has a lot of armor that he likes using on his lovers or sexual conquests whom he lures to his lavish penthouse in downtown Seattle.
But he is a respectful abuser who signs contracts and non-disclosure agreements with the women who agree to be abused by him. I’m not into the S&M or BDSM scene but it’s obviously out there as the book from which this film is made sold like 100 million copies.
But I have read a lot about former CBC radio host Gian Ghomeshi and his troubles with women in this kind of rough sex scene but after watching 50 Shades of Grey I don’t see much difference between the hero-villain of this film and Ghomeshi. In fact, Ghomeshi’s defense team only needs to show this film to the judge and jury and they are half way there in their defense in terms of establishing the BDSM scene.
See there is a fine line in this kind of sex scene and it’s hard to tell where the sex stops and the violence begins. Also my personal opinion is that violence against women is a very serious issue but in this kind of context it’s dicey because where do you draw the line where you have the woman agreeing to be submissive and they have a whole bunch of pre-established rules about how far that violence can go.
If 50 Shades of Grey begins a conversation about this edgy mix if sex and violence in the bedroom it may accomplished something more than this too long and boring film with intermittent display of tits and ass.
Hats off to Dakota Johnson for what she has to endure for her art as she spends much of the film completely naked and has just the right vulnerability as the pure, virginal heroine to make us feel her emotional and physical pain!
