movie review fifty shades freed

Movie Reviews

Tv/streaming, collections, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors, fifty shades freed.

Now streaming on:

The problem with the "Fifty Shades" franchise—if it can be called a franchise—is not so much its portrait of a controlling man manipulating his lover past her comfort zone, although earlier installments feature such scenes. The problem is there's not enough sex and too much ... everything else. Kidnappings. Office drama. There's a gun in a drawer. People are stalked. A helicopter crashes in the mountains. High-speed car chases! When compared to, say, some of the films of Catherine Breillat , the "Fifty Shades" movies come off as coy '60s films about marriage, commitment, and—adorably—male ineptitude in the kitchen. ("Fifty Shades Freed," the latest film, shows Christian Grey trying to make dinner for his new wife and burning the tomato sauce, as she looks on affectionately.) There's a conservative streak in E.L. James' books, an acceptance of all of the "symbols" making up the heterosexual status quo: diamond rings, marriage, house-hunting. What would the stories be like if they did question the status quo? What would it be like if Anna Steele was not interested in the domesticated trappings of state-approved monogamy, but chasing pure experience because it's fun and exciting? Now that would be truly radical.

But alas, this is not what we talk about when we talk about "Fifty Shades."

At the end of " Fifty Shades Darker ," also directed by James Foley , the emotionally damaged Christian Grey ( Jamie Dornan ), whose penthouse includes 1.) a sex-dungeon room with red leather walls and 2.) a pommel horse, proposed marriage to his virgin-turned-submissive-sex-partner Anastasia Steele ( Dakota Johnson ). "Fifty Shades Freed" starts with the wedding. At first all is bliss, with a couple of kinks—sexually (what's a honeymoon without handcuffs?) and emotionally (he doesn't want her going topless on the beach). They are called back from their honeymoon because a bomb exploded in one of the "Grey Enterprises" warehouses. Security footage reveals the terrorist as Hyde ( Eric Johnson ), Anna's former boss who sexually assaulted her at the first available opportunity. The lengths Hyde will go to to get revenge makes up just one of the many non-sexual plot-lines of "Fifty Shades Freed."

Another aspect of the film is Anna's desire to have a life outside of her marriage. She keeps working at the small publishing house where she was promoted to Fiction Editor while she was on her honeymoon, because that's realistic. In an inadvertently entertaining moment, Anna instructs her team on a book's font size. The film is crowded with events, held together by pop songs: Anna asserts her primacy with a hottie real estate agent making the moves on Christian, Anna's friend gets engaged, there's a spontaneous trip to Aspen, Hyde's on the loose, Anna's in danger, Christian gets wasted. The emotional tension of " Fifty Shades of Grey " and "Fifty Shades Darker," where Anna has hesitations about submitting to his sexual tastes, is gone. Anna loves the sex they have. She feels safe with him. When he's too controlling, she tells him so. They're actually ... a boring couple, truth be told.

These movies are silly, and they're silliest when they get romantic, like the scene when Anna discovers Christian, moody and sensitive, sitting at a grand piano, playing and singing Paul McCartney's "Maybe I'm Amazed." In that moment, Anna sees him as the little boy tormented by his childhood "in the system." We, however, just see a dumb scene. There are many such moments.

A lot of the cultural commentary on "Fifty Shades" has been worried concern—or outright contempt—about its portrayal of a controlling abusive relationship, where a man gaslights a woman into sex she's not comfortable with. That's not quite what's going on, though. She is willing to walk away from the relationship (and does so in former installments). When she comes back, she comes back on her terms. If everyone's consenting, then what's the problem? There's another aspect of "Fifty Shades" that deserves mention, relevant in particular to our current moment: because of the couple's chosen kink, verbal consent is built into the relationship, even after marriage. Consent is never assumed. She blurts out her safe word at one point, and he stops because those are the rules. She tells him what she didn't like. He apologizes. At one point, he stops what he's doing and asks her if it's all right. She says yes. A little bit later, he checks in with her again, and she gives him verbal consent to keep going. If you want to talk about the utopia of "enthusiastic consent," this is what it looks like.

Christian Grey is an impossible role for an actor. He is pure fantasy, but it's a particular kind of fantasy, emotionally complicated, with night terrors and abandonment issues. Some people are into the hotness of the fantasy of "healing" a damaged partner. It may be unhealthy in the "real world," but it's the stuff of the "Hurt/Comfort" subgenre of fanfic, which could fill every library in the world it's so popular. If that's your freak flag, let it fly. But Dornan never finds a "way in" to this frankly unrealistic bazillionaire-dom. He was so good as the serial killer in the television series " The Fall ," but here—when he has to show Christian's playful side, or emotionally damaged side—he is extremely inhibited.

Dornan's inadequacy is accentuated by Dakota Johnson's natural force of personality and charisma. Throughout, she makes intelligent choices (no small feat, considering the material). She doesn't take any of it too seriously, and yet she takes it seriously enough that she doesn't seem like she's "slumming." A sexy scene involving ice cream works because Johnson turns it into a game she finds amusing. Her sense of humor never leaves her. "Fifty Shades" is pure relationship melodrama, and the role of Anna requires an honest commitment to those aspects of the story. A true test of an actor's talent is how they survive silly or bad material. Dakota Johnson survives. Thrives, even. It will be fun to see what she does next.

Sheila O'Malley

Sheila O'Malley received a BFA in Theatre from the University of Rhode Island and a Master's in Acting from the Actors Studio MFA Program. Read her answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

Now playing

LaRoy, Texas

Robert daniels.

Evil Does Not Exist

Glenn kenny.

A Man in Full

Rendy jones.

Star Wars -- Episode I: The Phantom Menace

Roger ebert.

It's Only Life After All

Film credits.

Fifty Shades Freed (2018)

Rated R for strong sexual content, nudity, and language.

105 minutes

Dakota Johnson as Anastasia Steele

Jamie Dornan as Christian Grey

Kim Basinger as Elena Lincoln

Eric Johnson as Jack Hyde

Arielle Kebbel as Gia Matteo

Brant Daugherty as Luke Sawyer

James Foley

Writer (based on the novel by)

Niall Leonard

Cinematographer

John Schwartzman
David Clark
Richard Francis-Bruce
Debra Neil-Fisher
Danny Elfman

Latest blog posts

Cannes 2024: The Girl with the Needle, Wild Diamond

Roger Corman's Greatest Legacy Was Giving So Many People Their Big Break

The Red Carpets of the 2024 Chicago Critics Film Festival

Fated for All: Romanclusivity Captures Our Hearts in Bridgerton and Beyond

Log in or sign up for Rotten Tomatoes

Trouble logging in?

By continuing, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes.

Email not verified

Let's keep in touch.

Sign up for the Rotten Tomatoes newsletter to get weekly updates on:

Upcoming Movies and TV shows
Trivia & Rotten Tomatoes Podcast
Media News + More

By clicking "Sign Me Up," you are agreeing to receive occasional emails and communications from Fandango Media (Fandango, Vudu, and Rotten Tomatoes) and consenting to Fandango's Privacy Policy and Terms and Policies . Please allow 10 business days for your account to reflect your preferences.

OK, got it!

Movies / TV

No results found.

What's the Tomatometer®?
Login/signup

Movies in theaters

Opening this week
Top box office
Coming soon to theaters
Certified fresh movies

Movies at home

Fandango at Home
Netflix streaming
Prime Video
Most popular streaming movies
What to Watch New

Certified fresh picks

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes Link to Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
The Fall Guy Link to The Fall Guy
The Last Stop in Yuma County Link to The Last Stop in Yuma County

New TV Tonight

Interview With the Vampire: Season 2
Spacey Unmasked: Season 1
Outer Range: Season 2
After the Flood: Season 1
The Killing Kind: Season 1
Bridgerton: Season 3
The Big Cigar: Season 1
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon: Season 11.1
Harry Wild: Season 3
RuPaul's Drag Race: All Stars: Season 9

Fifty Shades Freed Reviews

With all-time great, comes all time-bad, and 2018 has provided cinephiles with the conclusion, oh I’m sorry, the climax of the worst trilogy of all time, the Fifty Shades trilogy.

Full Review | Original Score: .5/4 | Jan 31, 2023

It's as doofily entertaining, eye-rollingly awful, surprisingly steamy, and expectedly boring as all the other Fifty Shades films.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Dec 29, 2021

These movies, I think, are meant to be sexy romps, a bit of fun, but at the end of the series have proven themselves to be ten pounds of sex toys in a five pound bag.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Mar 4, 2021

When things become downright comical, it's nevertheless still watchable in its badness.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/10 | Dec 6, 2020

The simple truth is that Ana and Christian are still wholly unconvincing in their coupling.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.0/4.0 | Sep 7, 2020

This trilogy is the film equivalent of bad sex. Part 1 was awkward foreplay. Part 2 went through the motions with monotonous moves. And now, Part 3 reaches a clumsy climax that's so obviously fake that you just want it to end.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/4 | Aug 29, 2020

'Don't miss the climax,' the ads declare. What climax? Fifty Shades Freed falls flat of even reaching a plateau, just flailing around on the floor instead.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/5 | Jul 23, 2020

Ever wondered what The Room or Birdemic would have looked like with a boardroom of producers and a $55 million budget? Here you go.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/10 | Jul 18, 2020

The romance of Fifty Shades has no sizzle, the melodrama is not dramatic, and the sex - to put it frankly - is not that sexy.

Full Review | Original Score: D+ | Jul 18, 2020

If ever a franchise were crying out for the female gaze - surely this is it? If only Sam Taylor-Johnson had been given the creative control she desired and stayed on the franchise, we may have ended up with something of better quality.

Full Review | Jul 2, 2020

The cinematic equivalent of a shrug and people picking up a paycheck at the end of the week, and the result is a bland, flaccid wiener of a movie.

Full Review | Original Score: C- | Jul 1, 2020

Why isn't this sexy?

Full Review | May 18, 2020

They are the wrong people to star in this movie.

It's way too mainstream for its own good. It's got a host of questionable ethics. But it succeeds in getting a theater of people off. Take that as you will.

Full Review | Mar 23, 2020

It will move us forward as a culture and, at some point, we'll shake our heads, laugh at Fifty Shades Freed, and keep going.

Full Review | Feb 20, 2020

Love's most flummoxing journey has finally reached climax, but what a blandifying, inept "sexy thriller" note things end on.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/5 | Nov 6, 2019

It fails when it wants to address the emotional side and it's a shame when it tries to become a thriller for a few minutes. [Full Review in Spanish]

Full Review | Jul 30, 2019

The best film in the trilogy. Yet considering the general awfulness of this franchise, this is the equivalent of saying it's better to lose only one finger rather than three in an industrial accident.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | Jul 21, 2019

... for all its failings as a coherent narrative, it's a far more satisfying theatergoing experience than the last two chapters, if only because of how patently ridiculous the final product is.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/5 | Jul 17, 2019

Treats sexual kink with all the depth of a snickering middle-schooler who just discovered the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, but at least this one bothers to be fun.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Jun 3, 2019

Common Sense Media

Movie & TV reviews for parents

For Parents
For Educators
Our Work and Impact

Or browse by category:

Get the app
Movie Reviews
Best Movie Lists
Best Movies on Netflix, Disney+, and More

Common Sense Selections for Movies

50 Modern Movies All Kids Should Watch Before They're 12

Best TV Lists
Best TV Shows on Netflix, Disney+, and More
Common Sense Selections for TV
Video Reviews of TV Shows

Best Kids' Shows on Disney+

Best Kids' TV Shows on Netflix

Book Reviews
Best Book Lists
Common Sense Selections for Books

8 Tips for Getting Kids Hooked on Books

50 Books All Kids Should Read Before They're 12

Game Reviews
Best Game Lists

Common Sense Selections for Games

Video Reviews of Games

Nintendo Switch Games for Family Fun

Podcast Reviews
Best Podcast Lists

Common Sense Selections for Podcasts

Parents' Guide to Podcasts

App Reviews
Best App Lists

Social Networking for Teens

Gun-Free Action Game Apps

Reviews for AI Apps and Tools

YouTube Channel Reviews
YouTube Kids Channels by Topic

Parents' Ultimate Guide to YouTube Kids

Explaining the News to Our Kids

Family Tech Planners
Digital Skills
All Articles
Latino Culture
Black Voices
Asian Stories
Native Narratives
LGBTQ+ Pride
Best of Diverse Representation List

Celebrating Black History Month

Movies and TV Shows with Arab Leads

Celebrate Hip-Hop's 50th Anniversary

Fifty shades freed, common sense media reviewers.

Third and final movie has more bland sex, even less plot.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

The strongest message is that marriages/romantic r

Ana is more outspoken than in the past when it com

Similar violence levels as in the last movie. Ther

Many long, graphic sex scenes that show everything

Several uses of "f--k," "ass,"

Audi, Apple products (MacBook, iPhone, etc.), Cadi

Adults drink wine, beer, and cocktails at various

Positive Messages

The strongest message is that marriages/romantic relationships require a partnership between equals. Although chemistry/attraction is important, it's also essential that the people involved work together to compromise and support each other. Christian's story also encourages dealing with the difficult/disturbing aspects of your past and moving forward.

Positive Role Models

Ana is more outspoken than in the past when it comes to being an equal in her marriage. She's now more secure in herself and sure of what she wants, both out of marriage and in her career. She reminds Christian that marriage is about compromise, trust, and working through problems. Christian is still slightly controlling and jumps to jealous conclusions, but he ultimately listens to and respects Anastasia. Ana and Christian's close friends/family are supportive.

Violence & Scariness

Similar violence levels as in the last movie. There's gun and knife violence: An intruder holds Anastasia at knife point, and a man kidnaps a woman and holds her hostage, bound and gagged. A man forcefully slaps and kicks a woman to the point of unconsciousness. A character shoots another. Bodyguards point their guns at an attacker and apprehend him.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Many long, graphic sex scenes that show everything other than complete full-frontal nudity (i.e., bare breasts, lots of close-ups of nipples, shots of buttocks, and also occasional glimpses of pubic hair). These explicit scenes portray consensual light bondage and submission/domination scenarios, as well as oral sex and the use of various sex/novelty toys/aides. Definitely more sex scenes this time than in the first movie; possibly more than in the last one, too.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Several uses of "f--k," "ass," "a--hole," "s--t," "bulls--t," "d--k," "hell," "goddamn," "Jesus Christ," and "my God" (as exclamations), plus some "dirty talk."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Audi, Apple products (MacBook, iPhone, etc.), Cadillac Escalade, Cartier ring, some outerwear (North Face, Patagonia).

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Adults drink wine, beer, and cocktails at various receptions, dinners, and events. Kate and Ana drink martini after martini to the point that one of them gets drunk and needs to be driven home. Christian gets drunk offscreen and then returns home barely able to walk straight.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Fifty Shades Freed is the final installment in the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy, movies based on E.L. James' best-selling erotic romance novels originally written as Twilight fan fiction. Like the other two movies, it's an erotic drama with more bedroom action than pretty much anything else. Like Twilight's Breaking Dawn , Fifty Shades Freed starts with the main characters' wedding and then follows the sex-fueled newlyweds as they navigate external pressures -- but mostly just find ways to have sex anywhere they go. There are many explicit sex scenes, including extreme close-up shots of naked breasts and buttocks and glimpses of pubic hair -- as well as multiple sexual accessories and toys. The language is also strong, with "f--k," "s--t," and other words used frequently. Characters also drink often (appearing drunk in a couple of scenes), and there's lots of brand/product placement, especially luxury cars (Audi in particular) and electronics. Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan co-star. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Community Reviews

Parents say (23)
Kids say (16)

Based on 23 parent reviews

SO MANY BAD MESSAGES!!!!

What's the story.

FIFTY SHADES FREED begins with the wedding of Anastasia Steele ( Dakota Johnson ) and Christian Grey ( Jamie Dornan ), who immediately rush off to their luxurious honeymoon on a private plane. After sightseeing and making love around the world, the new Mr. and Mrs. Grey are forced to return to Seattle when Christian is told that an arsonist set fire to his company's server room. The perpetrator is Jack Hyde (Eric Johnson), Ana's former boss and attacker. After Jack is arrested for the fire, the Greys continue their life as newlyweds: Ana is promoted to a position that even she's not sure she deserves, and Christian mopes about Ana's commitment to her work. Ana calls Christian out when he lapses back into controlling possessiveness. They also buy a fixer-upper mansion, travel with friends, have a lot of sex, and then deal with Jack again.

Is It Any Good?

Although Johnson tries to liven up the wooden dialogue, this third and final installment is still a plot-free excuse to show the chemistry-less Greys having lots of sex in beautiful locales. Dornan, who's a decent actor in non-Fifty Shades projects -- particularly the gritty crime drama The Fall -- finally looks comfortable in his role, but Christian is still a deeply flawed, unlikable, mostly undeveloped character. The filmmakers tell but don't show him dealing with his past. He's just a walking piece of wish fulfillment, not a fully fleshed-out human character. And let's not even mention the ridiculous way in which Anastasia is promoted (due to nepotism) at work. The fact that Christian feels free to barge into an important meeting she's having with a star author to demand that she explain why she didn't immediately change her email address from "Ana Steele" to "Ana Grey" is perhaps one of the worst marital conversations ever portrayed on the big screen.

What makes this movie and Fifty Shades Darker even bigger disappointments than the original is that there's basically no plot. Like a more polished, big-budget version of late-night cable erotica, Fifty Shades Freed is pretty much just a series of artfully shot sex scenes (director James Foley loves to zoom in on Johnson's breasts) separated by the thinnest of narrative structures and poorly executed characterization. By the time Ana's unsurprising pregnancy enters the picture, it's that much more obvious that this movie isn't so much a climax but an anticlimax. But if all you're craving is a movie with plenty of graphic love scenes and luxe interiors, this is a fine pick.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about how sex is depicted in Fifty Shades Freed . Is Ana and Christian's marriage/relationship healthy? Parents, talk to your teens about your own values regarding sex and relationships.

Why do you think the Fifty Shades books and movies are popular? Is it an appropriate saga for teens? The author began her story as Twilight fan fiction; can you recognize traces of Edward and Bella in these characters?

Which, if any, of the characters are role models ? Are they sympathetic? Why, or why not?

Movie Details

In theaters : February 9, 2018
On DVD or streaming : May 8, 2018
Cast : Dakota Johnson , Jamie Dornan , Eric Johnson
Director : James Foley
Inclusion Information : Female actors
Studio : Universal Pictures
Genre : Romance
Topics : Book Characters
Run time : 101 minutes
MPAA rating : R
MPAA explanation : strong sexual content, nudity, and language
Last updated : May 18, 2023

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

Suggest an Update

Our editors recommend.

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 1

Want personalized picks for your kids' age and interests?

Like Water for Chocolate

Romance Movies

Teen romance novels, related topics.

Book Characters

Want suggestions based on your streaming services? Get personalized recommendations

Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.

To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories .

What Is Cinema?
Newsletters

Fifty Shades Freed Review: Delightfully Absurd Trilogy Goes Out with a Bang

By Jordan Hoffman

Image may contain Human Person Dating and Make Out

I experienced some weird moments of extreme empathy with Anastasia Steele ( Dakota Johnson ) during Fifty Shades Freed —and no, I don’t mean that in any kinky dom-sub way. I was simply as overwhelmed by the strangeness of her tale as she was.

The first scene in director James Foley’s conclusion (climax?) to the E. L. James, saga is of Anastasia’s wedding, so clearly, she said “yes” to Christian Grey’s ( Jamie Dornan ) proposal at the end of the last one. It’s a nice looking affair, so figure that even with Grey Money—the kind where you snap your fingers and the world immediately contorts to your wishes—there had to be time to book the hall, find a caterer, hire the right calligrapher for the invitations. The point I’m making is that even though the Grey-Steele romance has been a whirlwind since Ana literally stumbled into Christian’s office (then later his red dungeon, and, finally, his heart), it’s just inconceivable that she never found out before that he has his own jet.

“This is yours?” she asks as he carries her over the threshold in Fifty Shades Freed. “No—ours,” he answers. Smooth talker.

Later, after their honeymoon in Paris and the Riviera—where Ana fights for her right to go topless at the beach!—the pair is enjoying a quiet dinner at home when they first broach the topic of having children. We’re to believe that a relationship that began with a contract of dos and don’ts specific enough for a line item on anal fisting never got around to “hey, whatcha think about kids?”

The disorientation the characters feel is mirrored by the audience, at least the ones that never read the books. There’s some guy chasing Ana? Oh, yeah, I kinda remember that. Wait, what’s this talk about a helicopter crash? Who are all these blonde women again? Doesn’t Kim Basinger figure in somehow? Fifty Shades Freed, more so than the other two entries in this absurd yet undeniably enjoyable trilogy, has almost no narrative drive until the last 30 minutes. The film is more of a victory lap for those dedicated viewers who really wanted to see Ana and Christian in marriage. They wear nice clothing; they screw; they buy stuff; they take another trip; and they deal with something that confronts every newlywed couple: kidnapping attempts. The ephemeral nature of these movies, whose flimsy plots barely reach the legal definition of feature films, recede until we’re left with what’s essential: titter-worthy sex scenes and luxury goods.

I can’t for the life of me explain why the only architect in Seattle looks like a Victoria’s Secret model ( Arielle Kebbel ) and also shows up in Aspen when the rest of the film’s characters do, nor could I ever clarify why a catty consultation with her sends Ana into a 007-esque car chase. But I do know that the Audi R8 look both elegant and sporty, especially as Dakota Johnson bites her lower lip and takes it on sharp turns.

Jack Hyde (these names!) was Ana’s old boss, and now the Princeton-educated book editor has turned into a psychotic master criminal. Though Christian Grey is rich enough to buy the publishing house where Ana has been given another unearned promotion, he can’t figure out how to hire capable security. Hyde ( Eric Johnson ) outwits Grey’s goons multiple times, causing much consternation.

Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis Is a Passion Project Gone Horribly Wrong

By Richard Lawson

In Bird, Barry Keoghan Navigates a Tricky Parent-Child Bond

By Savannah Walsh

This leads to plenty of running around and even some gunplay, but that’s not really what Fifty Shades is all about. The real question is, can Christian and Ana’s romance grow into something mature while they still remain them ? Is there room for both responsibility and butt-plugs in this crazy world?

As with most things, the answer is, “with enough money, sure.” And that’s why this franchise remains a much-needed escapism release valve. It’s still cathartic and therapeutic to sit in the dark and dream a pure, selfish, and pleasantly photographed dream, where the endless material pampering (Christian is a sentient slab of abdominal muscles with a limitless black card) is the real perversion.

It’s hard to find compliments for Jamie Dornan beyond “very athletic”—but from start to finish, one can’t give Johnson enough credit for making these asinine movies work as well as they do. Her performance is about more than just the girl next door shedding her inhibitions for another kinky act, including, this time, one involving Ben & Jerry’s; you can see her making smart acting choices at every turn, somehow taking the gobbledygook of this preposterous story and humanizing it. Get her the right script, and she’ll be unstoppable.

But for now, Johnson—or Ana, at least—is in her happy place, on her knees next to Jamie Dornan and his riding crop. This final film ties (handcuffs?) everything up nicely, but it certainly is the weakest of the three; it lacks the shock of the first and bona fide insanity of the second. But for an enterprise so suspect (remember, this all spawned from Twilight fan fiction), it nevertheless leaves its mark. I went into this trilogy with my safe word ready, but I never had to use it.

Donald Trump Versus the Wind

Image may contain Tie Accessories Accessory Human Person Airport Airfield Vehicle Transportation and Aircraft

Jordan Hoffman

Contributing editor.

Watch James Corden and Jamie Dornan’s Steam-Powered Fifty Shades Parody

By Laura Bradley

The Razzies Somehow Snubbed the Worst Films of 2017

By Yohana Desta

How Fifty Shades Is Dominating the Literary Scene

By Shana Ting Lipton

Inside Mariko’s Jaw-Dropping Shōgun Decision: “It’s What She Wants”

By David Canfield

John Mulaney Discusses Drug Addiction, Recovery, and Fatherhood in Rare Interview

By Julie Miller

The 25 Best Movies on Netflix to Stream Right Now

By Joe Reid

Inside the Efforts to Try Russians for Ukraine War Crimes&-In Argentina

By Janine di Giovanni

Ingrid Michaelson Experienced Tremendous Loss. Working on The Notebook Helped Her Heal.

By Caitlin Brody

James Andrews, the Musical Mayor of New Orleans, Looms Large at This Week’s Jazz Fest

By David Friend

Alfred Molina Answers the Proust Questionnaire

By Alfred Molina

Supported by

Review: Finally, the Audience Is ‘Fifty Shades Freed’

Share full article

By Jeannette Catsoulis

Feb. 8, 2018

Previously on “One Bruise at a Time” (a.k.a. the first two “Fifty Shades” outings ): Ana and Christian (Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan), our slap-and-tickle surrogates, bonded through bondage and a shared affection for flattering lighting. Now, with “Fifty Shades Freed,” we’ve reached what the publicity notes are pleased to call “the climactic chapter” of this titillation trilogy based on the heavy-breathing novels of E.L. James. If another sequel shows up, though, I’m going to have to use my safe word.

Layering a damp-squib thriller subplot beneath what appears to be an ad campaign for the one-percent lifestyle, the returning director and screenwriter (James Foley and Niall Leonard) test the newly married couple with an inconvenient pregnancy and an unconvincing car chase. There’s an out-of-left-field abduction and a marital tiff over email addresses; but these narrative fragments, lazily tossed together alongside a neglected supporting cast, are no more than a flimsy causeway connecting bonking sessions.

Invariably accompanied by wailing makeout music and sometimes a dairy product, these function simultaneously as the movie’s raison d’être and its creamy topping. Yet with the couple’s power dynamic seemingly settled — he’s a controlling chauvinist, she’s mostly fine with that — the rods and restraints are no longer necessary negotiating tools. Now, it’s just married sex, albeit more rippling and racy than most.

As popular as this window-fogging franchise has become, its flaccid finale is likely critic proof. But if I can persuade just one of you to bypass its milquetoast masochism and watch the stratospherically superior “9 1/2 Weeks” instead, then I will have done my job.

Rated R for thongs and handcuffs and guns, oh my! Running time: 1 hour 45 minutes.

Explore More in TV and Movies

Not sure what to watch next we can help..

“Megalopolis,” the first film from the director Francis Ford Coppola in 13 years, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. Here’s what to know .

Why is the “Planet of the Apes” franchise so gripping and effective? Because it doesn’t monkey around, our movie critic writes .

Luke Newton has been in the sexy Netflix hit “Bridgerton” from the start. But a new season will be his first as co-lead — or chief hunk .

There’s nothing normal about making a “Mad Max” movie, and Anya Taylor-Joy knew that when she signed on to star in “Furiosa,” the newest film in George Miller’s action series.

If you are overwhelmed by the endless options, don’t despair — we put together the best offerings on Netflix , Max , Disney+ , Amazon Prime and Hulu to make choosing your next binge a little easier.

Sign up for our Watching newsletter to get recommendations on the best films and TV shows to stream and watch, delivered to your inbox.

Entertainment
<i>Fifty Shades Freed</i> Is a Pleasure. Just Don’t Call It a Guilty One

Fifty Shades Freed Is a Pleasure. Just Don’t Call It a Guilty One

W omen’s desire is a mysterious, feral thing, and if you think you’ve got it figured out because you’ve looked at a few Georgia O’Keeffe paintings, you’re not even close. No wonder most men, and plenty of women, would rather not scrutinize either the success or the content of E.L. James ‘ expansively steamy Fifty Shades novels and the movies adapted from them, Fifty Shades of Grey (2015), Fifty Shades Darker (2017) and, now, Fifty Shades Freed (running time 2 hours). It’s easier to laugh at these deliriously popular Fifty Shades books and movies than to tangle with what’s actually in them and with what they might mean to an audience. Plus, in the midst of our roaring cultural conversation about sexual harassment and abuse in the workplace, the elusive intricacy of what makes women tick is probably the last subject any of us wants to talk about. Which is exactly why now is the time to talk about it.

In Fifty Shades Freed , released in the U.S. on Feb. 9, Dakota Johnson returns as Anastasia Steele, the once prim but now sexually adventurous heroine introduced in Fifty Shades of Grey . In that movie, she was a recent college grad drawn into a somewhat unorthodox sexual relationship with 27-year-old Seattle billionaire Christian Grey (Jamie Dornan). Her initiation into Grey’s brand of BDSM kink happens in his “playroom,” a red-velvet-festooned bachelor lair kitted out with an array of restraints and dainty, rather harmless-looking riding crops. Although it doesn’t happen overnight, Anastasia progresses from timid but mildly curious mouseburger to self-assured, table-turning tigress. Meanwhile, the dizzying head game played out between these tentative lovers is familiar to just about any straight woman or gay man who has dated in the past, say, 2,000 years: Grey, though drawn to Anastasia, is emotionally generous one minute and stonily withholding the next. Her love can tame him, heal him! She’s special that way.

The Greys will see you now. #FiftyShadesFreed is NOW PLAYING. Get tickets: https://t.co/PItwn4ZJ0R pic.twitter.com/nUGoFz3Gut — Fifty Shades Freed (@FiftyShades) February 9, 2018

That dynamic plays out over and over–and over–in the Fifty Shades trilogy. But the pattern is part of the fun: as Prince said, there’s joy in repetition. Anastasia breaks with Grey at the end of the first film, when his sadistic impulses unreel a bit too far for her taste, and the two reconcile in Fifty Shades Darker . By this point, their relationship has become a more manageable pie chart of plain-vanilla and debauched sex, and they’ve gotten much better at talking. Most significant, Anastasia has learned to communicate exactly what she wants: I like it like this, not like that. Back off. Come closer.

Fifty Shades Freed opens with a comically exaggerated Modern Bride fantasy of a luxurious but intimate wedding followed by a no-expenses-spared honeymoon. (In one of the Fifty Shades Freed ‘s swooniest howlers, the newlyweds canoodle as the Eiffel Tower looms approvingly in the background.) Anastasia has married into money, but she’s also set on building her career as a book editor. And Grey’s need for control is weakness, not strength, and Anastasia knows it. Tellingly, her going-away outfit, a sleek eggshell pantsuit, is more impressive than her ho-hum-pretty wedding dress. A wedding dress is a goal, an end in itself, but a pantsuit is the future: it’s what a woman wears when she’s going places.

In Fifty Shades Freed there is also, of course, sex that is alternately steamy and ridiculous, and sometimes both at once. Fifty Shades Freed is ridiculous–luxuriously so. That doesn’t make it bad, no matter what professional critics–most of whom savaged the two earlier films–are likely to tell you. Fifty Shades Freed is what many people would call, in an attempt to prove that they know a good movie when they see one, a “guilty pleasure,” though I rail against that idea in principle. Nothing that brings pleasure ought to be reflexively entwined with guilt. Besides, movies that critics–or even our friends–loftily decree “bad” are actually often “good” in ways that have little to do with aesthetics or even taste. Maybe there’s clunky dialogue or thin characters or sex that would be silly if you tried to re-enact it in real life. But occasionally a movie just has the juice, some indefinable energy that even a perfectly crafted film can lack.

There’s another dynamic at work here. When movies are targeted toward women, as the Fifty Shades ones are, the chance that they will be dismissed increases exponentially, especially when so many critics happen to be men. That’s nothing new, and professional critics aren’t the only ones who scoff. Plenty of regular guys know a “chick flick” when they see one, though it goes without saying that some men love them, secretly or otherwise.

And women aren’t obligated to like them or respond to them, though it may be easier for us to read between the lines of their popularity. There’s a long, proud tradition of Hollywood films known, not always respectfully, as “women’s pictures,” movies with female protagonists who suffer hardships, make sacrifices and sometimes find unexpected joy and freedom. The women’s-picture umbrella is wide, covering 1940s triumph-over-adversity melodramas like Mildred Pierce ; vivid, tear-soaked 1950s spectacles like Written on the Wind ; and 1980s terminal-illness weepers like Terms of Endearment . Serious film scholars recognize, rightly, the artistry of some of these pictures. But the woman’s film, broadly speaking, has always been a potential target of derision. “What more damning comment on the relations between men and women in America than the very notion of something called the ‘woman’s film’?” the film critic and historian Molly Haskell wrote in her classic 1974 study From Reverence to Rape: The Treatment of Women in the Movies . “And what more telling sign of critical and sexual priorities than the low caste it has among the highbrows? Held at arm’s length it is, indeed, the untouchable of film genres.”

The Fifty Shades movies, replete with their fantasies of self-actualization and sexual experimentation and discovery, at least partially fit the profile of traditional women’s pictures. But they’re also a revival of another genre that has all but disappeared from Hollywood: the erotic thriller. The 1980s and ’90s were a golden age of movie nudity: think of the feverish carnality of Kathleen Turner in Body Heat , or Sharon Stone’s sultry brashness in Basic Instinct . Male nudity is more common in mainstream movies today than it was then. But female nudity has become practically extinct in Hollywood films: we still see it, but for the most part only in independent and foreign films. In the ’80s and ’90s you could argue, and many did, that movie nudity was generally gratuitous and degrading to women. But the little female nudity we see in mainstream films today is worse: it’s reserved largely for broad, jokey comedies like the 2016 blockbuster Deadpool , in which Morena Baccarin nearly stops the show in a sex-scene montage spanning nearly every holiday of the calendar.

That scene is too good-natured to offend any sensible person, but you’d hardly call it erotic. Even more depressingly, it’s symbolic of an increasingly puerile approach to movie sex. Today’s sex scenes, and the semi-nudity they feature, are rarely languorous or sensual. Instead, sex is generally presented as something best rushed through, Energizer Bunny–style, to limit the risk of embarrassment or remorse, or even the possibility of actual pleasure. In real life and in the best movies, a woman’s naked body has an innate elegance; it looks less dignified when it’s obscured by lingerie or a low-cut top, as we so often see in movies today. Those little bits of cloth speak less of modesty than of a perfunctory impulse to cover up, as if a woman’s nakedness could be nothing but an invitation to shame.

Movie nudity is so rare today that it makes what Dakota Johnson does, in all three Fifty Shades movies, that much more remarkable. She takes Anastasia seriously while retaining a sense of humor about herself. In a scene where Grey’s tongue follows the length of Anastasia’s leg, from ankle to wherever, Anastasia gives in to the moment, her neck arched in glorious silhouette. Johnson has a sense of Anastasia not just as part of a pristinely arranged tableau but also as a sensualist, with all the attendant nerve endings and complex emotions that that implies. Johnson is fearless about stripping bare, but her bold flirtiness is inextricable from her dignity: the sauciness of her mother Melanie Griffith and the marble-cool poise of her grandmother, Hitchcock blonde Tippi Hedren, merge in her.

The stolidly handsome Dornan, on the other hand, is something of a dud. But even that works in the movies’ favor: all eyes are on Anastasia’s pleasure. Fifty Shades Freed ‘s director, James Foley, and cinematographer, John Schwartzman, keep the movie’s sex scenes elegant and sleek, but not airless. This is a case where a woman’s nudity is presented for women’s delectation, not men’s. In her most euphoric moments, Anastasia looks how, if we’re lucky, some of us at times feel.

In that sense, Anastasia shares her youth and beauty even with those who are no longer young or youthfully beautiful. The current sexual-harassment firestorm has brought with it a clash between younger women and older feminists. Younger women perceive the message of older women as “You should have to put up with the same agonies we did.” Older women just want the younger ones to recognize that sexual impulses aren’t fully tamable beasts: civilization depends on our control of them, but they will always present dangers that demand our caution and awareness.

The signals between young and old have been crossed. We can only hope good faith will win out. But maybe Anastasia stands for everything second-wave feminists want for their young counterparts, at least in bed. Those women availed themselves of the sexual freedom afforded by the pill but they still had to deal with crappy, chauvinistic guys, not to mention episodes of uncomfortable, often regrettable sex in muddy fields and VW buses. Anastasia, meanwhile, knows when to say no, and when to walk away. She has set the terms of her own sexual bliss, as victor not victim. And, gorgeously, she can laugh about it all. Why shouldn’t it be our pleasure to laugh along with her?

More Must-Reads from TIME

The New Face of Doctor Who
Putin’s Enemies Are Struggling to Unite
Women Say They Were Pressured Into Long-Term Birth Control
Scientists Are Finding Out Just How Toxic Your Stuff Is
Boredom Makes Us Human
John Mulaney Has What Late Night Needs
The 100 Most Influential People of 2024
Want Weekly Recs on What to Watch, Read, and More? Sign Up for Worth Your Time

an image, when javascript is unavailable

Film Review: ‘Fifty Shades Freed’

Married life might change many people for the better, but it has a slightly dulling effect on this expensively appointed finale to E.L. James's erotic trilogy.

By Guy Lodge

Film Critic

‘On Becoming a Guinea Fowl’ Review: Trauma Takes on Grieving in Rungano Nyoni’s Darkly Transfixing Second Feature 19 hours ago
‘This Life of Mine’ Review: A Middle-Aged Woman Collapses and Rebuilds In Sophie Fillières’ Bittersweet Final Feature 1 day ago
‘The Girl With the Needle’ Review: Magnus von Horn’s Expressionistic Nightmare of Women Abandoned by Society 1 day ago

Every word is a safe one in “ Fifty Shades Freed ,” a Swarovski-dipped series closer that takes no chances, and spares no luxury expense, in giving Anastasia Steele and Christian Grey the dream wedding and nightmare honeymoon period their fans have been anticipating for years. Departing only incidentally from E.L. James’s trashy tome, and making up for any short cuts with extra set dressing, this is brochure cinema of the most profuse order, selling its audience more on a lifestyle than on any of the lives inside it. What began, however glossily, as an ambiguity-laced power struggle between two people from separate social and sexual worlds has devolved into a far less intriguing victory lap for an exquisite couple that wants, and can afford, most of the same things — at least until the pesky matter of baby-making gets in the way.

Even as it administered a patchouli-scented dose of fan service to James’s hungry readership, 2016’s “Fifty Shades of Grey” was a brittle, brisk surprise, refashioning the book’s lilac prose into a warped romantic comedy of personal boundaries, with S&M as the bargaining currency between Anastasia and Christian — played by Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan with a wary, push-pull dynamic. When director Sam Taylor-Johnson and writer Kelly Marcel made way, respectively, for James Foley and James’s husband Niall Leonard for “Fifty Shades Darker,” the result unsurprisingly hewed closer to the author’s original gushing vision, with sexual politics that were less thorny and, for all the steam generated on screen, more conservatively patriarchal.

Interesting as it would have been to see a third creative team take the finale up yet another tonal alley, Foley and Leonard unsurprisingly keep “Freed” bound to its source. With Mrs. Grey now mostly in her husband’s gilded grasp, the series’ former tart strain of battle-of-the-sexes comedy has bled almost entirely out of the enterprise, while even our heroine’s sporadic moments of defiance don’t stray far from a plush wish-fulfilment agenda.

Popular on Variety

But oh, what pretty wishes! And what princely fulfilment! “Fifty Shades Freed” begins where most romances of its ilk would reasonably end: with rich, dewy nuptials fit for a Vanity Fair spread. Quavering vows are exchanged against a wall of antique-blush roses; John Schwartzman’s camera gorges in crystalline close-up on every last silver cufflink and shred of Chantilly lace.

Taking the film on its own material terms, there’s a perverse frisson of pleasure — of sweet, egregiously unequal justice — to be had in watching two people this immaculately beautiful finally unite in quite such accordingly beautiful fashion, and it’s here where James (once more acting as producer) and the filmmakers have us right where they want us. “You own this?” Anastasia asks, gawping at the private jet waiting to whisk them off on a Côte d’Azur honeymoon. “ We own this,” her husband smirks in reply, as the film practically pauses for our applause, and maybe even a rosewater tear, at the shared privilege of it all. How far they’ve come.

What this spectacle doesn’t leave us, however, is much road for this relationship to travel in the happy couple’s souped-up, product-placed Audi speedster. James’s trilogy may consume over 1,600 pages of type, but it’s hard to shake the feeling from an early point in “Fifty Shades Freed” (the series’ shortest entry at a light, padded 105 minutes) that perhaps there weren’t quite three films in it. As Anastasia and Christian argue back and forth with only minor variations over admittedly major points of contention — his possessive nature infringing on her charmed career, their disagreement over when to start a family, whether she should remove her bikini top on the beach or not — Leonard’s lumpen script zeroes in on a tinny thriller subplot, centered on the violent, mysteriously vengeful stalking of Anastasia’s smarmy ex-boss Hyde (Eric Johnson) as the main attraction.

This is the terrain for which Foley, at his best a slinky genre stylist with a tobacco-acrid edge, was presumably brought on board, and he gives it a bit of vim: A luxury-vehicle car chase, screeching and weaving at arrogant speed along the highways of Seattle, is a set piece that rattles in the mind longer and louder than the who and why of it all. He can’t do much, however, to juice up a thin, illogical abduction climax that at least gives an admittedly gagged dramatic function to pop star Rita Ora — little-used but zappily charismatic as Christian’s sister Mia, the only member of this marble-clad family you’d conceivably want to hang with for reasons other than sheer monetary osmosis. In a series so obsessively dazzled by its central couple that even actors like Marcia Gay Harden and Jennifer Ehle are reduced to subservient stick figures in their orbit, that’s an accomplishment.

The trouble with this tunnel vision is that, by round three, there’s nothing left to discover in Anastasia and Christian — characters who, even at their most engaging, weren’t exactly Chekhovian to begin with. With the root of his sadism, her masochism and the mood music their combined issues make together all adequately explored, we’re left mostly rehashing old tensions that, with familiarity, have gone a little slack.

Johnson, so wonderful in the first film, made a game fist of her character’s more capricious conception in the second. This time, her inherent likeability as a performer is all that’s keeping Anastasia, a notionally independent career woman who veers between seething assertiveness and spineless compliance at the script’s will, from sliding off the screen entirely. The extent of Christian’s development, meanwhile, is summed up by the film’s most inadvertently amusing line, delivered by yet another peripheral admirer in his employ: “That GQ profile on you? I love what you’re doing in Africa.” (Dornan even gets a chance to croon Paul McCartney’s “Maybe I’m Amazed” at the piano, just to prove just what an awakened heart beats beneath all that bespoke pewter-colored tailoring.)

And what of the sex? Perhaps the lone surprise of “Fifty Shades Freed” is just how incidental its erotica has become: There’s no shortage here of lightly spiced bump and grind, staged and shot with salted-caramel smoothness, with nothing more than Johnson’s nipples or a fleeting brush of Dornan’s pubic hedge to prickle delicate sensibilities. But where the first film’s sex scenes, however tame in the grand scheme of things, were integral to setting the terms and tone of the relationship under scrutiny, by this point they’re mostly just (very) attractive digressions, while the once-tremulously mentioned Red Room of Pain has become merely another indulgent facility at Casa Grey, not to mention a handy spare bedroom in the event of a soon-resolved marital squabble. It’ll be a nursery before you know it.

Indeed, a sex-free, PG-13 version of “Freed” could be cut without shedding a second of narrative coherence, such as it is; one could ask what the point of that would be, though similar queries might be leveled at the film as it stands. Intentionally or otherwise, however, perhaps there’s a rueful truth to the gradual dwindling of the films’ kink levels: Sex is just a thing Anastasia and Christian do now, as it is for many a married couple until, in some cases, it eventually isn’t even that any more.

Finally, the film closes with a fat French kiss to its fans: a creamy montage of memorable moments from the whole series — mostly, let it be said, from the first two films — scored to a light remix of “Love Me Like You Do,” Ellie Goulding’s soaring pop belter from “Fifty Shades of Grey.” (The new film’s theme, a comparatively generic number by Ora and Liam Payne, isn’t given quite such pride of place.) If that highlight reel is fresher and more vivid than the agreeably silly cashmere diversion that precedes it, it’s hard to begrudge the happy, horny couple a pleasantly boring life together. (Anti-capitalists can begrudge them everything else, but that’s another story.)

Is “Fifty Shades Freed” a wily takedown of married bliss, or at least an acknowledgement that it makes the wildest among us a shade less exciting? Almost certainly not, to go by the contented sighs and cheers that greeted the finale’s dreamily domestic flash-forward at its premiere. Still, it’s fun to imagine this ritzy, ultimately rule-abiding film being at least that provocative.

Reviewed at Salle Pleyel, Paris, Feb. 6, 2018.

Production: A Universal Pictures presentation of a Michael De Luca production in association with Perfect World Pictures. Producers: Michael De Luca, E.L. James, Dana Brunetti, Marcus Viscidi.
Crew: Director: James Foley. Screenplay: Niall Leonard, adapted from the novel by E.L. James. Camera (color, widescreen): John Schwartzman. Editors: Richard Francis-Bruce, Debra Neil-Fisher. Music: Danny Elfman.
With: Dakota Johnson, Jamie Dornan , Eric Johnson, Rita Ora, Luke Grimes, Victor Rasuk, Jennifer Ehle, Marcia Gay Harden, Eloise Mumford, Max Martini, Arielle Kebbel, Brant Daugherty, Amy Price-Francis, Tyler Hoechlin.

More From Our Brands

Hear miley cyrus’ edgy cover of talking heads’ ‘psycho killer’, custom line just unveiled a new 127-foot superyacht in venice—and we got a first look, under armour plans revamp after dour earnings report, the best loofahs and body scrubbers, according to dermatologists, law & order: organized crime finale recap: joe’s gotta go — plus, grade it, verify it's you, please log in.

Fifty Shades Freed (2018)

User Reviews

Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews

User Ratings
External Reviews
Metacritic Reviews
Full Cast and Crew
Release Dates
Official Sites
Company Credits
Filming & Production
Technical Specs
Plot Summary
Plot Keywords
Parents Guide

Did You Know?

Crazy Credits
Alternate Versions
Connections
Soundtracks

Photo & Video

Photo Gallery
Trailers and Videos

The Definitive Voice of Entertainment News

Subscribe for full access to The Hollywood Reporter

site categories

‘fifty shades freed’: film review.

Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan are back for 'Fifty Shades Freed,' the conclusion to the trilogy based on E.L. James’ best-selling novels.

By Jordan Mintzer

Jordan Mintzer

Share this article on Facebook
Share this article on Twitter
Share this article on Flipboard
Share this article on Email
Show additional share options
Share this article on Linkedin
Share this article on Pinit
Share this article on Reddit
Share this article on Tumblr
Share this article on Whatsapp
Share this article on Print
Share this article on Comment

Closing the book on what is arguably one of the worst film franchises in recent memory, Fifty Shades Freed doesn’t quite end with the bang one would hope for. Although, if by “bang” you’re thinking what everyone else is thinking, then there are definitely a few of those in this third and final adaptation of the best-selling E.L. James trilogy. And there’s even the bang of a gun going off at some point in the third act.

But in terms of drama, or melodrama, or just bad drama, Freed rarely delivers the goods while trying hard to give fans what they came for: more visits to the “playroom” for some lightweight sadomasochism, more eye-rolling plot mechanics involving Christian Grey’s troubled past, more reactionary views on love and marriage, more money shots of sports cars, private jets and vacation homes that only the 1 percent can afford and more attempts to turn what may be one of the duller couples to ever grace the screen into two captivating characters. For good measure, the filmmakers also toss in a butt plug.

Release date: Feb 09, 2018

Seriously, is this the best we can offer adults who don’t want to watch Marvel movies? Given that the Fifty Shades flicks have so far grossed nearly $1 billion worldwide, the answer seems to be yes. This installment should likewise draw a good crowd, although perhaps less than the other two films as viewers begin to grow tired of the same old bedroom routine.

Razzie Awards: 'Transformers,' 'Fifty Shades Darker,' 'Mummy' Top Nominations

What this all adds up to isn’t much, and the film’s race-against-the-clock finale has the creative suspense of a T.J. Hooker episode. Director James Foley, returning after taking over the franchise from Sam Taylor-Johnson, made some decent movies a few decades ago ( At Close Range, Glengarry Glen Ross , the underrated The Corruptor ) and then worked on House of Cards for the first three seasons. But he seems to take little interest in this material beyond applying an extra level of gloss to each shot, with the production team going overboard on the BDSM and bling. Never has a drawer filled with vibrators looked as elegant and fanciful as it does here.

Johnson and Dornan do their best with the material as well, and, at least for the former’s sake, Ana Steele has a minimal sense of humor and a bit of life to her. Christian Grey , on the other hand, is such a bore that Dornan seems to be doubling down on the stiffness and gives his line readings like he’s reciting from a teleprompter. For a man who can buy anything he wants, including the woman of his dreams, Grey should maybe try investing in a personality.

For the many erotic titillations the Fifty Shades films advertise, their approach to sex has always seemed way too asepticized , like we’re watching two people make love with rubber gloves and a bottle of hand sanitizer. Can’t they just let loose a little bit, instead of playing by some supposed guidebook that involves expensive toys, safe words and what seems like zero spontaneity? The kinkiest scene in the whole series is probably one that occurs about halfway through Freed where, after a bout of insomnia, Ana and Christian decide to get busy in the kitchen with a tub of vanilla ice cream. They actually look like they’re having fun for once, which is not such a bad thing in what’s meant to be a love story. But in terms of, er, last licks, it comes as too little, too late.

Production companies: Universal Pictures, in association with Perfect World Pictures Distributor: Universal Cast: Dakota Johnson, Jamie Dornan , Eric Johnson, Rita Ora, Luke Grimes, Victor Rasuk , Jennifer Ehle , Marcia Gay Harden Director: James Foley Screenwriter: Niall Leonard, based on the novel by E.L. James Producers: Michael De Luca, E.L. James, Dana Brunetti , Marcus Viscidi Director of photography: John Schwartzman Production designer: Nelson Coates Costume designer: Shay Cunliffe Editors: Richard Francis-Bruce, Debra Neil-Fisher Composer: Danny Elfman Casting directors: Laray Mayfield, Julie Schubert

Rated R, 105 minutes

THR Newsletters

More from The Hollywood Reporter

Cannes hidden gem: ‘blue sun palace’ is a bracing look at the chinese immigrant experience in nyc, ‘thelma the unicorn’ review: brittany howard voices title character in a netflix animated charmer for all ages, how a french filmmaker traced the journey of trans women from gaza in cannes doc, david cronenberg is shrouded in mystery — even as he bows a painfully personal film at cannes, tony leung named jury president at tokyo film festival, hong chau had covid when yorgos lanthimos came calling with ‘kinds of kindness’.

Become a Critical Movie Critic
Movie Review Archives

Movie Review: Fifty Shades Freed (2018)

Movie Reviews
No responses
--> February 14, 2018

And with that, the war on Valentine’s Day is over.

It took two films, but finally Christian (Jamie Dornan, “ Anthropoid ”) shows off the smarts they said made him capable of running a company: Using just one ring rather than many cables to bind his love, Anastasia (Dakota Johnson, “ How to Be Single ”). Fifty Shades Freed opens with Ms. Steele blooming into Mrs. Grey — or, more precisely, sub wife to her dom man. For their honeymoon, they bounce to Europe, first Paris and then Monaco — a.k.a. Boob Land, as Anastasia calls it. Meanwhile, Jack Hyde (Eric Johnson, “Orphan Black” TV series) returns, mining a wallop of data for revenge and stuff in the middle of the Greys’ session of cuffed consummation on Riviera waters.

Seems like the “Fifty Shades” series finally knows the meaning of “stakes.” Wait, that doesn’t sound or spell like “sex,” and so it will be treated with as much substance as a half-night stand. That exclusive obsession with and of the flesh, hollow as it is, elevates E.L. James’ “writing” into the phenomenon we know today, and that’s something scribe Niall Leonard immaculately translates to the screen adaptations. It’s tortuous. Variation occasionally comes in the form of Christian’s, or Ana’s, irresponsibility to bear the fruits marriage may sow, but Leonard builds them with great disinterest, zipping by them like they weren’t there and making fornication the plot’s backbone. In retrospect, that’s the writer’s intention and voice in which no one will deny. And so the cheapening, even smearing, of a peculiar kind of romance is at its most rampant, and the want for proper dialogue and plot points has finally become make-believe.

It’s clear Johnson and Dornan are tired. Can we blame them, really, upon knowing the story, as it goes on, is in essence less about them and more about their next bedroom trick? Kudos, still, for the production to get Audi and Ben & Jerry’s to go along with the ride, pun unintended. So visible is the leads’ ennui from — or most of their existence throughout the trilogy — trapped in a single note of either nearing climax or causing one. Semi-understandably, the “Fifty Shades” series is about having fantasies satisfied, but all ring false when one minute after another until the end is just that. For three films. And now Christian knows how to sing, too! Imagine a dream where the elements within keep lunging at you with “You can see me now because you’re sleeping.” At least Dornan gets to play drunkard at one point, which is genuinely amusing. Johnson continues to imbue Anastasia with that about-to-do-an-eye-roll trait, again being the perfect audience surrogate. These aren’t average actors — Dornan, like Chris Hemsworth, knows funny (see his parody with James Corden); Johnson can be heartrending when her character is crafted like a human being (see “ Black Mass ”). They’re free to go now, and that’s a cause worth celebrating.

Like its two predecessors, the style-guide look of Fifty Shades Freed is the only thing not set out punish, test, or corrupt our inner goodness. There’s no trouncing the refined garbs and modish sets of “ Fifty Shades of Grey ,” but Shay Cunliffe’s costumes and Nelson Coates’ production design do fleetingly liven the sterile atmosphere. That said, a more inspired method to get the film’s look for yourself and your abode is to read up GQ or Cosmopolitan. Better writing lives there, as well as more tricks to give intimacy some color — in other words, love less like Greys do.

Tagged: love , novel adaptation , sequel , sex , wedding

Graduated from the University of Houston. Love writing about culture and film. Life at the moment directed by Sam Mendes. Could use more friends and cinephiles on Facebook or Twitter .

Movie Review: Game Night (2018) Movie Trailer: mother! (2017) Movie Review: Killing Ground (2016) Movie Review: Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017) Movie Review: Wish Upon (2017) Movie Review: Okja (2017) Movie Review: Rough Night (2017)

'Movie Review: Fifty Shades Freed (2018)' has no comments

| Log in

Fifty Shades Freed Review

09 Feb 2018

Fifty Shades Freed

Ironically for a film about pushing the boundaries of sexual pleasure, there has always been the sense that the Fifty Shades franchise has played it too safe. Never celebrating the kitsch like one of those ‘90s DTV erotic thrillers with titles like Lethally Blonde, or taking it seriously as a full-on dive into erotic obsession, the results have been tame, mostly poor affairs, not bad enough to be guilty pleasures or good enough to be, well, good. Fifty Shades Freed , the last in E.L. James' trilogy, sadly continues in that vein.

Adapted by James’ husband Niall Leonard, Fifty Shades Freed doesn’t have a story as such. Instead it strings together a series of vignettes comprising different kinds of porn. Of course, there is the BDSM (we get handcuffs on ankles, sex toy teasing, 9½ Weeks style shenanigans with ice cream, almost exclusively played out to slowed down versions of a retro hit) but more often we get wedding porn, fast car porn, big house porn, workplace porn (Anastasia’s publishing house office is ridiculous) etc. Like the previous films, it’s a hymn to lifestyles without any sense of real interior lives behind them.

It’s a hymn to lifestyles without any sense of interior lives behind them.

The first movie had an arc for Anastasia to go on, from virginal student to sexually awakened paramour, but there is no such luck here. The slivers of plot revolve around the return of Ana’s former boss Jack Hyde (Eric Johnson, terrible), the creep from Fifty Shades Darker , who is hell-bent on destroying Ana’s life after she caused him to lose his job. As revenge plots go, it is a slow, dull burn that goes apeshit in the last reel in ways that feel forced. Other story drivers include Christian’s controlling nature, disagreements over having children, an architect (Arielle Kebbel) who turns heads and more revelations about Christian’s past but none of them add up to anything.

While Sam Taylor-Johnson gave the first film a hint of a raised eyebrow, Foley shoots everything with an earnest, technically impressive sheen — if you ever need someone to photograph your dildo drawer, he’s your man — but never anchors it to any meaning. Dornan struggles through it, by turns mortified and befuddled: he is even made to warble through Paul McCartney’s 'Maybe I’m Amazed' to borderline laughable effect.

If there has been one bright spark in this franchise it is Johnson. She manages to breathe life and attitude into Ana in ways that aren’t on the page. But not even she can surmount the risible thriller antics of the final act. Like Kristen Stewart, another refugee from a popular if derided franchise, she needs material and filmmakers to match her talent. She needs to say goodbye to the safe words.

Movies | 06 08 2018

Movies | 25 02 2018

Movies | 19 02 2018

Movies | 11 02 2018

Movies | 03 01 2018

Movies | 06 11 2017

Movies | 29 10 2017

Movies | 11 09 2017

Search Please fill out this field.
Newsletters
Sweepstakes

Fifty Shades Freed is a guilty pleasure without the pleasure: EW review

Strip the pleasure away from a guilty pleasure and what are you left with exactly? Fifty Shades Freed , the third and final cinematic installment in E.L. James’ trashy S&M trilogy, answers that question with every ludicrous plot twist, stilted line delivery, and too-laughable-to-be-hot sex scene.

Ironically, for a film about the art of the tease, Fifty Shades Freed wastes no time diving right into things. A glossy, envy-inducing montage shows Anastasia (Dakota Johnson) and Christian (Jamie Dornan) getting dolled up for their big wedding day. Soon, they’re exchanging vows — yet another contract of sorts between these two, albeit one that’s more traditional than transgressive. They dash out of the reception, tear off in a sports car, and pull up to his private jet. “You own this?” she asks as if chloroformed into a Kardashian fairy tale. “ We own this,” he replies. Jesus wept.

But just when you begin to worry that Fifty Shades has become less kinky Penthouse Forum and more wish-fulfillment Martha Stewart Weddings , the newlyweds arrive in Paris for their honeymoon. Yachts are unmoored. Topless beaches are basked upon. And preposterous exchanges like this (courtesy of James’ husband, screenwriter Niall Leonard) are uttered: “How come you always braid my hair?” “Hush…. Do you remember your safe word?” Handcuffs are deployed. Moans are moaned. And In the audience, eyes are rolled.

Meanwhile, back in Seattle, there’s a break-in at Grey’s Dr. Evil-like corporate HQ. It’s the dirty work of none other than Jack Hyde (Eric Johnson), Anastasia’s creepy ex-boss and nemesis. The honeymoon will have to be put on hold as the couple flies home to stumble through the clumsy machinations of a preposterous howler of a thriller between bouts of vigorous humping and Anastasia’s uneasy awakening into the world of being a kept woman. E.L. James, 1; Feminism, 0.

The dynamic has changed a bit between these two impossibly photogenic ciphers over the course of James’ saga. Christian seems more insecure — more jealous, more possessive, and more willing (or, at least, less reluctant) to occasionally be the bottom in the relationship. Anastasia, on the other hand, is bucking at the gilded cage she finds herself trapped in. She’s more assertive (at least when it suits her interests) and more interested in taking the wheel (literally during a high-speed chase with Hyde, which of course is capped off by a legs-akimbo bucket-seat quickie). The audience I saw this with cracked up the whole time. And not in the we’re-uncomfortable-so-let’s-nervously-laugh way, but in the can-you-believe-this-is-an-actual-movie forehead-slapping way.

The thriller plot with Hyde is wafer thin. So director James Foley (yes, the same James Foley who somehow once directed Glengarry Glen Ross and then apparently lost a best with Satan) appeals to our collective weakness for materialistic envy with ritzy mountain vacations, bubble baths, and visits to the infamous Red Room of Pain. As an actress, Johnson sells all of this hooey better than Dornan, who, three films in, hasn’t gotten much better as an actor. Sure, he has an underwear model’s bod, artfully manicured stubble, and intense Blue Steel stares. He can even sit down at the piano and soulfully belt his way through Paul McCartney’s “Maybe I’m Amazed”. But he still comes off as a daytime soap star who somehow hit the lottery.

Alas, there’s also some trouble in paradise. The newlyweds argue about their differing expectations of what being married means, time tables on starting a family, and even whether or not Anastasia should take her bikini top off on the beach. (Spoiler alert: she does.) But none of this is very interesting. Which leaves us with the sex. There was a time back in the early ‘90s, when steamy erotic thrillers like this unspooled on Cinemax in the wee hours seemingly all the time. They had interchangeable names like Animal Instincts , Body Chemistry , and Sins of Desire . They seemed to sprout up like toadstools in the wake of commercial big-studio hits like Fatal Attraction , 9 ½ Weeks , and Basic Instinct . Those films weren’t very good either. But they at least seemed to embrace their own trashiness without shame. They had a certain integrity about their awfulnesss. Fifty Shades Freed is certainly slicker than those carnal cheapies. But it seems embarrassed to embrace its own pervy nature. It’s kitsch that looks in the mirror and deludes itself into thinking it sees art staring back. D+

Fifty Shades Freed : A Spoilereview

Another sequel so awful that it needs to be described in detail to be believed

Dakota Johnson as Ana Steele-Grey in 'Fifty Shades Freed'

For reasons that are now obscure to me—and were by definition ill-conceived—I read Fifty Shades of Grey at that terrible moment in American history when it seemed that everyone else was reading it too. I don’t believe that I read either of the book’s sequels, though I can’t attest to that with much confidence. Suffice to say that I made either the wise decision to skip them or the only marginally less-wise decision to repress all memory of them.

But writing about movies is something I’m paid to do, and occasionally that entails a degree of professional self-sacrifice. This week, the name of that sacrifice is Fifty Shades Freed .

The third and final—let’s pause and savor that word for a moment—adaptation of the “erotic romance” novel series by Erika Mitchell (pen name: E. L. James), Fifty Shades Freed is precisely as atrocious as one might imagine. Which is to say, it is far worse than the first movie —which, though awful, in hindsight looks like Citizen Kane , only with more discussion of dildos. I’d place the new film more or less on a par with the second one , Fifty Shades Darker , which makes sense given that both were filmed concurrently, were directed by James Foley (whose principal recommendation is that he directed Glengarry Glen Ross many, many years ago), and were adapted by Niall Leonard (whose principal recommendation is that he is married to Erika Mitchell).

Fifty Shades Darker : A Spoilereview

Jamie Dornan as Christian Grey and Dakota Johnson as Anastasia Steele in "Fifty Shades of Grey."

Fifty Shades of Dull

It Isn’t About Your Love Language; It’s About Your Partner’s

The good news—and, yes, we are grading on a curve so steep that it’s essentially a vertical drop—is that Fifty Shades Freed is marginally less retrograde and offensive than Fifty Shades Darker . The bad news is that it is even more idiotic, which is in its way a remarkable achievement.

In any case, like its predecessor , it is eminently deserving of one in my occasional series of spoilereviews: a linear enunciation of all the stupid elements of the film that I managed to scribble into my notebook during the screening. (Other examples of the microgenre have included Lucy , Fantastic Four , The Happening , and The Gunman .) To be clear: What follows will give away as many plot developments as possible, as it is intended to serve as an alternative to actually seeing the movie. But I feel confident that the universe of people who would like to laugh at this film is considerably larger than the universe of those who are actually willing to sit through it. So here goes.

1. To catch up anyone who is either unfamiliar with the series or as adept as I may be in the art of repression: In the first film, Anastasia Steele (Dakota Johnson), a virginal college student, was persuaded by the billionaire entrepreneur Christian Grey (Jamie Dornan) to become his S&M sexual “submissive.” She rebelled vaguely at the end of the film, only to be successfully wooed again in the second, which largely set aside the naughty S&M theme that had been the entire rationale for the enterprise in the first place. (Its “climax” was that Christian took Ana to his Red Room of Pain and … applied massage oil.) The only other bits that I think were of any importance are that 1) Ana’s boss at the Seattle publishing house where she worked sexually assaulted her, so Christian pulled strings to have him fired; and 2) Christian proposed marriage, offering a ring large enough to double as a bocce ball, and Ana accepted.

2. So Fifty Shades Freed opens with a wedding. We watch the gorgeous lace of Ana’s wedding dress being buttoned; we marvel at the hefty, masculine majesty of Christian’s cuff links. Alas, their vows are heartbreakingly conventional: “I promise to love, trust, and protect you”; “I give you my hand and my heart, for as long as we both shall live.” Boo! Where are the references to domination and submission, to flogging and spanking, to the Red Room? What movie is this?

3. After some dancing, Christian tells Ana, “Let’s get out of here. I’m sick of sharing you with all the riff-raff.” Not to get all class warrior here, but that may not be the best phrase for a billionaire to throw around with his now billionaire-by-marriage wife. It sounds a tad, let us say, Steve Mnuchin-y.

4. Christian whisks Ana to the airport, where a private jet is waiting. “You own this?” she asks, incredulous. Hello? He’s spent two movies taking her up in gliders and helicopters and out on million-dollar sailboats. She’s surprised he has a private jet? Ana actually seems to remember what happened in those films even less than I do.

5. Paris! If the Eiffel Tower didn’t give it away, the movie adds the Arc de Triomphe as a secondary clue. They go to the opera. They hold hands. They have tasteful, from-a-distance, no-nudity sex. This may be the worst advertisement for marriage of all time. Your most conservative grandparent is probably getting bored about now.

6. They continue on to the Côte d’Azur. At a topless beach, Ana wants to take off her bikini top, but lifelong-pervert-turned-sudden-prude Christian forbids it. When he goes for a swim, she takes her top off anyway, which may be the most self-actualized thing she’s done in all the movies combined. Progress, I guess.

7. They go back to the luxury yacht they’re staying on. Christian, still peeved that Ana disobeyed him re: toplessness, pulls out handcuffs. She seems aghast. Once again, it appears that she has no recollection of the previous two movies. Is there a roofie subtext to the whole trilogy that is never made explicit?

8. Alas, the honeymoon is cut short. A female subordinate of Christian’s calls to tell him that someone broke into his company’s “server room” and detonated an “explosive device.” Watching the security footage, Ana recognizes the intruder as Jack Hyde (Eric Johnson), the former boss who attacked her and was essentially fired by Christian. “Why would he do that?” Ana asks. Really? Crazy or not, his motive seems pretty self-evident. Or is it?

8a. Yes, Jack “Hyde” easily wins the otherwise-close competition for most ridiculously metaphorical surname.

8b. As I noted in the spoilereview for the previous movie, with the exception of security guards, virtually all subordinates in the Fifty Shades universe are female. I may be missing some small exception somewhere, but perhaps the most consistently clear message of the whole series is that women always work for men and not the reverse.

9. Back at Christian’s penthouse apartment in Seattle, Ana meets the staff and is flabbergasted at the question of how she wishes to “run the household.” I swear she was unconscious throughout the first two movies. How I envy her.

10. Ana dismisses the cook for the night because she wants to make dinner. Christian: “I could get used to you in the kitchen.” Ana: “Barefoot and pregnant?” Christian is obviously nonplussed by this response, and it doesn’t appear that it’s over Ana’s possible neglect of footwear. This is what in introductory screenwriting classes is called foreshadowing .

11. Ana shows up at work at the publishing house that exists to imply that she has a “job” even though she almost never seems to perform it. There she learns that she has been promoted to “fiction editor.” A subordinate, Liz (of course: a woman), tartly points out that the promotion occurred despite the fact that “you weren’t even here.”

11a. Unless I’m sorely mistaken, Ana was already promoted to fiction editor in the last movie, after Christian fired the previous fiction editor, her sexually assaulting then-boss, Jack. Maybe she was only acting fiction editor? Or maybe this movie has no better sense of what’s already transpired than Ana herself?

11b. It’s also very much worth noting that in the last movie Christian purchased the publishing house where Ana works, becoming, as they joke repeatedly, her “boss’s boss’s boss.” (Funny!) Could this have played a role in Ana’s meteoric rise from just-graduated newbie assistant to senior editor? Duh, although no one seems to notice but that cranky subordinate Liz. (More on her later.) One could almost imagine Fifty Shades Freed having a deeper, subversive level, in which the wildly rich, constantly self-indulgent Ana and Christian are the villains, and their many lower-income foils and employees are the heroes. But this is a movie that could hardly make more conspicuous that it doesn’t have “levels.”

12. Christian barges into Ana’s office, as he frequently does. He’s mad that she hasn’t changed her email address to “Anastasia Grey .” She explains that she wants to use her maiden name at work and that she loves her job. He explains that she “can’t love it as Anastasia Steele .” (Lest we forget, he is her boss’s boss’s boss, after all.) He adds that she got her job “through hard work and talent.” Pretty much everyone at the screening I attended laughed.

13. He shows her his fancy new product-placed Audi sports car. She pleads, “Can I drive? Let me drive. Let me drive it.” He ignores her and drives it himself.

14. He takes her to a beautiful lakeside mansion, and she says she feels as though she’s been there before. He reminds her that she saw it when they were out on the sailboat in the previous movie, so he bought it for her.

15. He’s hired an architect, Gia, who meets them at the house. She is beautiful and clearly has her eyes on Christian. Will she be the foil/complication that this limp film so desperately needs? No, she will not. This is the only time we see her, although characters will refer back to how wonderful her breasts are on multiple occasions.

16. Gia wants to tear down the entire mansion and replace it with an ultra-modern “smart home” featuring self-cleaning windows. Ana hates this idea and hates the way Gia looks at Christian, so she tells her, “You may call me Mrs. Grey . Or you can get back into your shit-colored car and drive back to Seattle.” It’s genuinely head-spinning how quickly Ana has changed her mind on the whole surname question and gone from Nice Girl Next Door to Nasty Entitled Rich Person. But at least she doesn’t call Gia “riff-raff.”

17. Christian is so impressed with Ana’s transformation that he allows her to drive the car. That puts him a full four months ahead of Saudi Arabia, which has announced that it is rescinding its ban on women drivers in June. Delighted at her newfound right, Ana enthuses, “I’m a race-car driver!” Attentive viewers may notice the echo of the last movie, in which Christian let her take the wheel of the sailboat and she gushed, “I can’t believe I’m doing this! I’m the captain!”

18. A mysterious SUV starts tailing them—is it Jack?—leading to what may be the least dynamic car chase committed to celluloid since the retirement of the Model T. After losing the SUV, they pull into a parking lot. Ana climbs onto Christian’s lap and they have sex. Ana giggles.

19. Christian needs to go to New York for meetings. Ana offers to give him a haircut and asks where the scissors are. He says they’re in his desk, and when she goes to look for them she finds a revolver. Is this an example of the dramatic principle of “ Chekhov’s gun ”? Of course it is. While Ana cuts Christian’s hair, he gropes her. She giggles.

20. Christian, concerned about the possible threat from Jack, makes Ana promise to come directly home from work while he’s out of town. Instead, she goes out drinking with her friend Kate. When she gets back to the apartment, Jack is waiting for her with a kitchen knife. Luckily, he’s captured by Ana’s two security guards. One says, “You better restrain him.” The other replies: “I don’t have anything.” Ana announces: “We do.” This is the high point of the movie so far, and perhaps the only intentionally comic moment of the series to date.

20a. It’s worth noting that Jack, whose only job that we’re aware of was as a fiction editor, has essentially become a super-criminal, capable of penetrating extensive security to attack Christian’s corporate office and very nearly kidnap his wife. Keep this in mind the next time you piss off a fiction editor.

21. When Ana wakes up, Christian is back and is angrily morning-drinking. Later on, he will take her to the Red Room and torment her with a vibrator without allowing her sexual release. He explains that this is how he feels when she doesn’t do what he asks. It doesn’t seem like a very apt comparison.

22. Ana and Christian puzzle over why Jack (now incarcerated) has been out to get them. Once again, does anyone remember the previous movie, in which they had him fired for sexual assault, effectively ending his career?

23. Ana is back at work when Christian shows up unannounced. “I think you deserve a break,” he declares, before bundling her onto a plane to Aspen. It’s becoming increasingly clear that Ana’s job at the publishing house is simply to wait around until Christian barges in crankily or whisks her away for an impromptu vacation.

23a. Could this last detail be semi-autobiographical? If the fiction editor in charge of Erika Mitchell’s Fifty Shades novels spent all of her time on vacation, it might help explain the books’ overall quality.

24. Ana and Christian are in Aspen, along with his brother, Elliott, her friend Kate—the two are dating—his sister, Mia, and her boyfriend. Christian plays “ Maybe I’m Amazed ” on the piano and sings, faux soulfully. Mia’s boyfriend, speaking for the entire filmgoing audience, says, “Maybe I’ve heard enough.” This is the movie’s second high point. There won’t be a third.

25. Ana has a nightmare about Jack. Christian wakes up to find her in the kitchen eating ice cream. She spoons some onto his chest and licks it off. He spoons some onto her inner thighs and licks it off. They have sex on the table. Ana giggles. Look, I’m all for having fun during sex, but if I were Christian I’d be concerned about the fact that Ana giggles every time he drops trou.

26. Christian’s security guard has done a background check on Jack and determined that before coming to Seattle he was also a fiction editor in New York and Chicago. (That’s probably how he learned to be a criminal mastermind.) Also, he was in and out of foster homes in Detroit. Christian says, “So was I.” To quote the great Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog : “ What a crazy random happenstance. ”

27. Elliott proposes to Kate, but not before mentioning how promiscuous he was before he met her. Pro tip, fellas: Leave that part out.

28. Back in Seattle, Christian takes Ana to the Red Room and has her choose one of his assortment of butt plugs. Later, at work, she reminisces about the experience. So I guess that’s a third thing her job entails. Meanwhile, a judge releases Jack on bail for no discernable reason whatsoever.

29. Ana goes to the gynecologist. It turns out she has repeatedly forgotten to take her contraceptive shots and is now six to seven weeks pregnant. But cut her some slack: It’s hard to stay on top of every little bit of life maintenance when you spend all your time taking vacations and fantasizing about butt plugs.

30. Ana tells Christian about the pregnancy over dinner. He’s furious. (Remember his “barefoot and pregnant” response?) He stays out late and gets drunk, and when he returns Ana learns that he’s been out with Elena Lincoln, the older woman who seduced him into S&M when he was 15. Now she’s angry and locks herself in the Red Room to sleep. The fact that this is what it’s now being used for tells you pretty much everything you need to know about the erotic quotient of the movie.

31. Ana tells Christian, “Babies happen when you have sex.” A more accurate formulation would be, “Babies happen when you have sex and can’t be bothered to keep up with a form of contraception that is specifically designed for its extreme ease of use.”

32. At work, Ana gets a call from Jack, who has kidnapped Christian’s sister, Mia. Ana must get him $5 million dollars in cash within a few hours or he’ll kill her. Ana mustn’t tell Christian.

33. Are you bored yet? I am. After all, the whole point of this exercise is to take less time than the movie itself. So let’s cut to the chase. Through comically absurd machinations, Ana gets the money and meets Jack at an abandoned building on the edge of town. It turns out he has an accomplice: Liz, the subordinate who thought it odd that Ana got a big promotion despite not having been in the office for weeks. Jack punches and kicks Ana. But she brought the pistol from the desk—thank you, Chekhov!—and shoots Jack in the leg. The police arrive as Ana passes out.

34. After Ana returns home from the hospital, she and Christian receive more information about Jack. It turns out that—wait for it—he and Christian spent time in the same foster home in Detroit when they were kids. Christian was adopted by a rich family, while Jack was left behind, destined for a life of drudgery and destitution as a high-end fiction editor. That’s why he was out to get Ana and Christian.

35. Christian feels bad about the charmed life he’s led. Ana reminds him, “You’re a man of honor. And you treat people well.” She has literally forgotten every single thing that’s happened throughout the course of these films.

36. The movie ends with a montage reminding us of all Ana and Christian’s romantic moments together. (None, notably, are from the current film.) He saves her from being run over by a bicyclist; he takes her up in a helicopter, a glider, and a private jet; he brings her out on a sailboat. It was only now that I realized: This entire trilogy has been an R-rated version of Richard Scarry’s Cars and Trucks and Things That Go . Which raises the inevitable question: Will Christian let Ana drive the pickle car?

Movie review: 'Fifty Shades Freed' marks low point for series

If "Fifty Shades Freed" succeeds in any way, it's as a halfway decent unintentional comedy. As a romance, soft-core porn and, gulp, action movie, it's a bland, limp failure.

Robbed of any sense of longing or mystery of the first two films, the wrap-up to the trilogy struggles with the sadomasochistic Romeo and Juliet dealing with that deadliest of dramatic enemies: Domestic bliss. Having worked out most of Christian's psychological issues and Anastasia's abandonment fears, all that's left to shake things up are laughably bizarre sex scenes and insipidly filmed action sequences.

The issue that's always dogged these movies is the disconnect between the mental visions that could be inspired by the written word and the deflating translation of those fantasies into onscreen reality, exposed for how silly they are.

The plot material has grown so threadbare that Christian (Jamie Dornan) has turned his famous smoldering jealousy toward... an imaginary baby? Yup, on multiple occasions he whines to Anastasia (Dakota Johnson) that he's worried a baby they might one day have will take all her attention away from him.

What is Christian, a toddler? His behavior is more suited to the star of a children's book like "What to Expect When Mommy's Having a Baby" rather than an erotic thriller.

When Christian drops the leering sex act and tries to be romantic -- singing a love song as he plays the piano -- things move even more firmly into facepalm mode. Anastasia's tangles with a stalker lead to a car chase and gunfight that make the movie more like "Fifty Shades Freed-Dumb."

Anastasia's safe word during her hot-heavy bondage encounters is "red." If only audiences could stop the horrors by shouting "red" at the screen.

Then again, those parts of the movie are no more ludicrous than the film's attempts at getting sexy. More wince-inducing than arousing, the Christian-Anastasia sexcapades are increasingly uncomfortable and gross. The film cruises at shark-jumping altitude once it has Anastasia lick melted ice cream off Christian's abs.

The problem that's always dogged these movies is the disconnect between the mental heat that could be stoked by the written word and the deflating translation of those fantasies into onscreen reality, exposed for how silly they are.

An end-film montage of Christian and Anastasia's breathless encounters from the first two movies is more depressing than wistful. Did we really waste all that time watching this junk? At least "Fifty Shades Freed" finally grants audiences sweet release from its horrors.

RATING: 1 stars out of 4

Sign up for the South Florida Sports Headlines Newsletter and receive up to date information.

Now signed up to receive the south florida sports headlines newsletter..

HURRICANE GUIDE

Kindle Store
Kindle eBooks
Literature & Fiction

Promotions apply when you purchase

These promotions will be applied to this item:

Some promotions may be combined; others are not eligible to be combined with other offers. For details, please see the Terms & Conditions associated with these promotions.

Buy for others

Buying and sending ebooks to others.

Select quantity
Buy and send eBooks
Recipients can read on any device

These ebooks can only be redeemed by recipients in the US. Redemption links and eBooks cannot be resold.

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required .

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

Follow the author

Image Unavailable

Fifty Shades as Told by Christian Trilogy: Grey, Darker, Freed Box Set

To view this video download Flash Player

Fifty Shades as Told by Christian Trilogy: Grey, Darker, Freed Box Set Kindle Edition

All three novels from Christian's point of view in EL James's #1 New York Times bestselling Fifty Shades of Grey series—now available in one e-book bundle.

Discover the world of Fifty Shades:

An Instant #1 New York Times Bestseller
More than 165 Million Copies Sold Worldwide
One of 100 Great Reads in the Great American Read
133 Weeks on the New York Times Bestseller List

Christian Grey exercises control in all things; his world is neat, disciplined, and utterly empty—until the day that Anastasia Steele falls into his office, in a tangle of shapely limbs and tumbling brown hair. He tries to forget her, but instead, is swept up in a storm of emotion he cannot comprehend and cannot resist. Unlike any woman he has known before, shy, unworldly Ana seems to see right through him—past the business prodigy and the penthouse lifestyle to Christian's cold, wounded heart. But Christian knows a relationship with Ana will not be easy, and that being together will pose challenges that neither of them would anticipate. Just when it seems that their strength together will eclipse any obstacle, misfortune, malice, and fate conspire to turn Ana and Christian's deepest fears into reality.

This e-book bundle includes Grey, Darker, and Freed, the Fifty Shades stories in Christian's point of view, which have sold millions of copies and enchanted readers around the world.

And don't miss The Mister , a modern-day Cinderella love story that will captivate E L James fans and lovers of danger, romance, and intrigue alike!

Print length 2078 pages
Language English
Sticky notes On Kindle Scribe
Publisher Bloom Books
Publication date November 16, 2021
File size 6904 KB
Page Flip Enabled
Word Wise Enabled
Enhanced typesetting Enabled
See all details
In This Series
By E. L. James
Customers Also Enjoyed
Adult Romance

Editorial Reviews

About the author.

E L James is an incurable romantic and a self-confessed fangirl. After twenty-five years of working in television, she decided to pursue a childhood dream and write stories that readers could take to their hearts. The result was the controversial and sensuous romance Fifty Shades of Grey and its two sequels, Fifty Shades Darker and Fifty Shades Freed . In 2015, she published the #1 bestseller Grey , the story of Fifty Shades of Grey from the perspective of Christian Grey, and in 2017, the chart-topping Darker , the second part of the Fifty Shades story from Christian's point of view. She followed with the #1 New York Times bestseller, The Mister in 2019. Her books have been published in fifty languages and have sold more than 165 million copies worldwide.

E L James has been recognized as one of Time magazine's "Most Influential People in the World" and Publishers Weekly's "Person of the Year." Fifty Shades of Grey stayed on the New York Times bestseller list for 133 consecutive weeks. Fifty Shades Freed won the Goodreads Choice Award (2012), and Fifty Shades of Grey was selected as one of the 100 Great Reads, as voted by readers, in PBS's The Great American Read (2018). Darker was long-listed for the 2019 International DUBLIN Literary Award.

She was a producer on each of the three Fifty Shades movies, which made more than a billion dollars at the box office. The third installment, Fifty Shades Freed , won the People's Choice Award for Drama in 2018. E L James is blessed with two wonderful sons and lives with her husband, the novelist and screenwriter Niall Leonard, and their West Highland terriers in the leafy suburbs of West London.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B09GKZQBYD
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Bloom Books (November 16, 2021)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ November 16, 2021
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 6904 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 2078 pages
#4,084 in Women's Romance Fiction
#10,218 in Women's Literature & Fiction
#16,011 in Contemporary Romance (Kindle Store)

Videos for this product

Click to play video

Fifty Shades Trilogy (Fifty Shades of Grey / Fifty Shades Darker / Fifty Shades Freed)

Amazon Videos

About the author

E. l. james.

E L James is an incurable romantic and a self-confessed fangirl. After twenty-five years of working in television, she decided to pursue a childhood dream and write stories that readers could take to their hearts. The result was the controversial and sensuous romance Fifty Shades of Grey and its two sequels, Fifty Shades Darker and Fifty Shades Freed. In 2015, she published the #1 bestseller Grey, the story of Fifty Shades of Grey from the perspective of Christian Grey, and in 2017, the chart-topping Darker, the second part of the Fifty Shades story from Christian’s point of view. Her books have been published in fifty languages and have sold more than 165 million copies worldwide.

E L James has been recognised as one of Time magazine's ‘Most Influential People in the World’ and Publishers Weekly’s ‘Person of the Year’. Fifty Shades of Grey stayed on The New York Times Best Seller List for 133 consecutive weeks. Fifty Shades Freed won the Goodreads Choice Award (2012), and Fifty Shades of Grey was selected as one of the 100 Great Reads, as voted by readers, in PBS’s The Great American Read (2018). Darker has been long-listed for the 2019 International DUBLIN Literary Award.

She co-produced for Universal Studios the Fifty Shades movies, which made more than a billion dollars at the box office. The third instalment, Fifty Shades Freed, won the People’s Choice Award for Drama in 2018.

E L James is blessed with two wonderful sons and lives with her husband, the novelist and screenwriter Niall Leonard, and their West Highland terriers in the leafy suburbs of West London.

Customer reviews

Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.

To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.

Reviews with images

Sort reviews by Top reviews Most recent Top reviews

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. please try again later..

Top reviews from other countries

Report an issue

Amazon Newsletter
About Amazon
Accessibility
Sustainability
Press Center
Investor Relations
Amazon Devices
Amazon Science
Sell on Amazon
Sell apps on Amazon
Supply to Amazon
Protect & Build Your Brand
Become an Affiliate
Become a Delivery Driver
Start a Package Delivery Business
Advertise Your Products
Self-Publish with Us
Become an Amazon Hub Partner
› See More Ways to Make Money
Amazon Visa
Amazon Store Card
Amazon Secured Card
Amazon Business Card
Shop with Points
Credit Card Marketplace
Reload Your Balance
Amazon Currency Converter
Your Account
Your Orders
Shipping Rates & Policies
Amazon Prime
Returns & Replacements
Manage Your Content and Devices
Recalls and Product Safety Alerts
Conditions of Use
Privacy Notice
Consumer Health Data Privacy Disclosure
Your Ads Privacy Choices

IMAGES

Review: 'Fifty Shades Freed' is one of the worst movies I've ever seen
Fifty Shades Freed
Fifty Shades Freed
Fifty Shades Freed (2018) Review
Fifty Shades Freed (2018) Review
Fifty Shades Freed Review

VIDEO

Fifty Shades Freed
Fifty Shades Freed
Fifty Shades Freed Movie Review
Fifty Shades Freed
Fifty Shades Freed
Fifty Shades Freed

COMMENTS

Fifty Shades Freed movie review (2018)
Reviews Fifty Shades Freed Sheila O'Malley February 09, 2018. ... When compared to, say, some of the films of Catherine Breillat, the "Fifty Shades" movies come off as coy '60s films about marriage, commitment, and—adorably—male ineptitude in the kitchen. ("Fifty Shades Freed," the latest film, shows Christian Grey trying to make dinner for ...
Fifty Shades Freed
Watch Fifty Shades Freed with a subscription on Max, rent on Fandango at Home, or buy on Fandango at Home. Fifty Shades Freed brings its titillating trilogy to a clumsy conclusion, making for a ...
Fifty Shades Freed
The simple truth is that Ana and Christian are still wholly unconvincing in their coupling. Full Review | Original Score: 2.0/4.0 | Sep 7, 2020. Jason Fraley WTOP (Washington, D.C.) This trilogy ...
Fifty Shades Freed Movie Review
Parents need to know that Fifty Shades Freed is the final installment in the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy, movies based on E.L. James' best-selling erotic romance novels originally written as Twilight fan fiction. Like the other two movies, it's an erotic drama with more bedroom action than pretty much anything else. Like Twilight's Breaking Dawn, Fifty Shades Freed starts with the main ...
Fifty Shades Freed (2018)
Fifty Shades Freed: Directed by James Foley. With Dakota Johnson, Jamie Dornan, Eric Johnson, Eloise Mumford. Anastasia and Christian get married, but Jack Hyde continues to threaten their relationship.
Fifty Shades Freed Review: Delightfully Absurd Trilogy Goes Out with a
Fifty Shades Freed, more so than the other two entries in this absurd yet undeniably enjoyable trilogy, has almost no narrative drive until the last 30 minutes. The film is more of a victory lap ...
Review: Finally, the Audience Is 'Fifty Shades Freed'
Feb. 8, 2018. Previously on "One Bruise at a Time" (a.k.a. the first two "Fifty Shades" outings ): Ana and Christian (Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan), our slap-and-tickle surrogates ...
Fifty Shades Freed Review: It's a Pleasure to Watch
Fifty Shades Freed 's director, James Foley, and cinematographer, John Schwartzman, keep the movie's sex scenes elegant and sleek, but not airless. This is a case where a woman's nudity is ...
Film Review: 'Fifty Shades Freed'
Film Review: 'Fifty Shades Freed' Married life might change many people for the better, but it has a slightly dulling effect on this expensively appointed finale to E.L. James's erotic trilogy.
Fifty Shades Freed
Fifty Shades Freed. Metascore Generally Unfavorable Based on 43 Critic Reviews. 31. User Score Generally Unfavorable Based on 160 User Ratings. 3.5. My Score. Hover and click to give a rating. Add My Review.
Fifty Shades Freed (2018)
dave-mcclain 9 February 2018. "Fifty Shades Freed" (R, 1:45) is the third and final installment in the trilogy of erotic S&M-tinged movies based on the novels by E.L. James (after 2015's "Fifty Shades of Grey" and 2017's "Fifty Shades Darker"). This one begins where most romantic films end - with a wedding. Having accepted the sweet marriage ...
'Fifty Shades Freed' Review
Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan are back for 'Fifty Shades Freed,' the conclusion to the trilogy based on E.L. James' best-selling novels. Closing the book on what is arguably one of the worst ...
Fifty Shades Freed Review
The Fifty Shades movies are less like movies and more like Sharper Image catalogues, but with a lot more sex in them. ... Fifty Shades Freed Review The Fifty Shades trilogy ends exactly as it ...
Movie Review: Fifty Shades Freed (2018)
Like its two predecessors, the style-guide look of Fifty Shades Freed is the only thing not set out punish, test, or corrupt our inner goodness. There's no trouncing the refined garbs and modish sets of " Fifty Shades of Grey ," but Shay Cunliffe's costumes and Nelson Coates' production design do fleetingly liven the sterile atmosphere.
Fifty Shades Freed (film)
Fifty Shades Freed is a 2018 American erotic romantic drama film directed by James Foley and written by Niall Leonard, based on E. L. James's 2012 novel of the same name.Produced by Perfect World Pictures, Michael De Luca Productions, and Trigger Street Productions, and distributed by Universal Pictures, it is the third and final installment in the Fifty Shades film series, following Fifty ...
Fifty Shades Freed Review
Fifty Shades Freed, the last in E.L. James' trilogy, sadly continues in that vein. Adapted by James' husband Niall Leonard,Fifty Shades Freed doesn't have a story as such. Instead it strings ...
Fifty Shades Freed review: A guilty pleasure without the pleasure
Fifty Shades Freed: 19 changes from page to screen Fifty Shades of consent: How the erotic franchise helped start the conversation E.L. James' The Mister is so much worse than Fifty Shades: EW review
'Fifty Shades Freed' Review: An Awful Trilogy Comes to an End
One could almost imagine Fifty Shades Freed having a deeper, subversive level, in which the wildly rich, constantly self-indulgent Ana and Christian are the villains, and their many lower-income ...
Fifty Shades Freed
Fifty Shades Freed starring Dakota Johnson, Jamie Dornan and Eric Johnson directed by James Foley is reviewed by Christy Lemire, Alonso Duralde and Matt Atch...
FIFTY SHADES FREED
FIFTY SHADES FREED is both a melodramatic romance and a thriller about a stalker. The romance is often rather silly, eliciting laughs from some viewers. The thriller portion of the movie plays better, but it competes with the ups and downs in the personal drama between Ana and Christian. Setting aside their controversial nature, the bedroom ...
Fifty Shades Freed
The epic Fifty Shades trilogy comes to an end! How will this Twilight fan fiction monstrosity wrap up? Here's my review of FIFTY SHADES FREED!Follow me on th...
Movie review: 'Fifty Shades Freed'
If "Fifty Shades Freed" succeeds in any way, it's as a halfway decent unintentional comedy. As a romance, soft-core porn and, gulp, action movie, it's a bland, limp failure.
Watch Fifty Shades Freed
Newlyweds Anastasia and Christian barely begin to settle into postnuptial bliss when a shadowy figure from the past threatens their happily-ever-after. Watch trailers & learn more.
Fifty Shades as Told by Christian Trilogy: Grey, Darker, Freed Box Set
Fifty Shades of Grey stayed on the New York Times bestseller list for 133 consecutive weeks. Fifty Shades Freed won the Goodreads Choice Award (2012), and Fifty Shades of Grey was selected as one of the 100 Great Reads, as voted by readers, in PBS's The Great American Read (2018). Darker was long-listed for the 2019 International DUBLIN ...

Movie Reviews

Sheila O'Malley

Now playing

LaRoy, Texas

Evil Does Not Exist

A Man in Full

Star Wars -- Episode I: The Phantom Menace

It's Only Life After All

Fifty Shades Freed (2018)

Writer (based on the novel by)

Cinematographer

Latest blog posts

Cannes 2024: The Girl with the Needle, Wild Diamond

Roger Corman's Greatest Legacy Was Giving So Many People Their Big Break

The Red Carpets of the 2024 Chicago Critics Film Festival

Fated for All: Romanclusivity Captures Our Hearts in Bridgerton and Beyond

Log in or sign up for Rotten Tomatoes

Email not verified

Sign up for the Rotten Tomatoes newsletter to get weekly updates on:

Movies / TV

Fifty Shades Freed Reviews

Or browse by category:

Common Sense Selections for Movies

50 Modern Movies All Kids Should Watch Before They're 12

Best Kids' Shows on Disney+

Best Kids' TV Shows on Netflix

8 Tips for Getting Kids Hooked on Books

50 Books All Kids Should Read Before They're 12

Common Sense Selections for Games

Nintendo Switch Games for Family Fun

Common Sense Selections for Podcasts

Parents' Guide to Podcasts

Social Networking for Teens

Gun-Free Action Game Apps

Reviews for AI Apps and Tools

Parents' Ultimate Guide to YouTube Kids

YouTube Kids Channels for Gamers

Explaining the News to Our Kids

Celebrating Black History Month

Movies and TV Shows with Arab Leads

Celebrate Hip-Hop's 50th Anniversary

A Lot or a Little?

Positive Messages

Positive Role Models

Violence & Scariness

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Products & Purchases

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Parents Need to Know

Where to Watch

Community Reviews

SO MANY BAD MESSAGES!!!!

Is It Any Good?

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Movie Details

Did we miss something on diversity?

Suggest an Update

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 1

Like Water for Chocolate

Romance Movies

Fifty Shades Freed Review: Delightfully Absurd Trilogy Goes Out with a Bang

Donald Trump Versus the Wind

Jordan Hoffman

Review: Finally, the Audience Is ‘Fifty Shades Freed’

Explore More in TV and Movies

Fifty Shades Freed Is a Pleasure. Just Don’t Call It a Guilty One

More Must-Reads from TIME

Film Review: ‘Fifty Shades Freed’

Popular on Variety

Reviewed at Salle Pleyel, Paris, Feb. 6, 2018.

More From Our Brands

Fifty Shades Freed (2018)

Did You Know?

Photo & Video

Related Items

Recently Viewed

The Definitive Voice of Entertainment News

site categories

Jordan Mintzer

Related Stories