‘Fifty Shades Darker’ Review: At Least Look Like They’re Enjoying Themselves This Time
Even if the ongoing saga of Anastasia Steele (played by Dakota Johnson) is nothing but wish fulfillment, why should adult female audiences be deprived a vicarious shot at career advancement, gorgeous lingerie and a billionaire underwear model who’s fond of what the young hero of “20th Century Women” would refer to as “direct clitoral stimulation”?
Whether it’s Jack getting handsy or the appearance of Elena (Kim Basinger) – the older woman who taught a young Christian the ropes, as it were – or the threat of one of Christian’s old subs (Bella Heathcote), who’s now stalking Anastasia, our young lovers run a gauntlet of threats in between masked balls and dinners out and naughty elevator rides.
TV scribe Niall Leonard makes his film debut as a screenwriter, adapting the terrible prose of novelist E.L. James, to whom, by sheer coincidence, he happens to be married.
If you’ve seen Dakota Johnson in anything else (“Date and Switch,” “How to Be Single,” even her hosting stint on “Saturday Night Live”), you know she has a spark that these movies completely suppress; as for Dornan, the character’s relative state of relaxation has rubbed off on the actor, but he’s still stuck playing an underwritten stiff.
Director James Foley and his team give the target audience what it allegedly wants: gleaming surfaces, nudity at a distance, and the tidiest kink imaginable.