First Hit: Although not a good film, it was a good way to conclude the series.
I, for the most part, painfully waded through this series of films telling the story of sex, control and asking questions to discover what love is.
In this final of the trilogy, Anastasia Steele (Dakota Johnson) accepts Christian Grey’s (Jamie Dornan) proposal for marriage. Marrying shortly thereafter they settle into a life together and when there is a discussion about children, Christian balks and states that he’s not willing to discuss it now.
Although they bring up Grey’s past upbringing and his being adopted, if you didn’t see the prior films, you won’t really understand the impact of this and why he’s not willing to discuss children.
As an audience member, this plot device is obvious that this is what is going to separate the couple and then bring them back together. There are no surprises in this film or story.
They add elements from previous films including Jack Hyde (Eric Johnson) who was Anastasia’s boss until he tried to make an unwanted move on her. We’re led to believe that he really wants Anastasia but the film attempts to make it deeper by showing us that he and Grey were in the same foster home and he’s jealous of who Grey got adopted by.
The sex and bondage sex scenes were not erotic. This might be because, as I noticed in all three films and it is more pronounced here, there is virtually no chemistry between Dakota and Jamie. I was also put off by the obvious product placements, especially Audi.
Johnson is OK as Anastasia. Dornan is a poor actor. I simply cannot buy his character as someone real and there’s little in this film to tell me anything different. Eric Johnson is one of the better parts of the film as he’s sufficiently a bad man. Niall Leonard wrote an OK final film screenplay to this series. James Foley directed this final film with some great scenery and a fun car chase.
Overall: This is a weak storyline but it doesn’t make a mockery of the film series and lets it conclude with some integrity.