Fifty Shades Darker (film)

Plot

Christian Grey (Jamie Dornan), after his break up with his girlfriend, has nightmares about the abuse he suffered during his childhood. Anastasia "Ana" Steele (Dakota Johnson) has begun her new job as an assistant to Jack Hyde (Eric Johnson), an editor at Seattle Independent Publishing, who appears to show more than a casual interest in Ana. That evening, she attends Jose Rodriguez's (Victor Rasuk) art gallery show and is shocked to find Christian there. With some reluctance she agrees to have dinner with him. Christian tells her that he wants her back, but Ana is reluctant as he enjoys inflicting pain. He insists that he has changed and would agree to Ana's terms of no rules and no punishments if they would resume their relationship. She agrees.

A few days later, Ana is interrupted by a woman who bears a striking resemblance to Ana. She later goes out with Jack at a local bar. Christian sees Ana's boss flirting with her in the bar. He quickly departs with Ana and he warns Ana of Jack's undisguised intentions. Christian also tells Ana that his own company has been looking to take-over control and ownership of SIP, where Ana works.

While out for breakfast with Christian, Ana notices the same woman watching them from a distance. When she asks him who it is, he does not immediately answer. At home, he reveals to her that the woman she saw was Leila Williams (Bella Heathcote), one of his former submissives. He tells her that after their contract had ended, she wanted more to their relationship but he didn't want to. She later found herself a husband, who then died. This caused her to suffer a mental breakdown and she has been stalking Ana and Christian for some time.

Later, Christian invites Ana to a masquerade ball at Christian's adoptive parents' house. Christian takes Ana to Esclava, a beauty salon, to get her prepared for the ball. There, she sees Elena Lincoln (Kim Basinger), Christian's former dominant who introduced him to the BDSM lifestyle. Ana is furious that he would take her there and is shocked to find out that he co-owns the salon with Elena. At the ball, Ana learns that Christian had been expelled from various schools for fighting. She also learns that Christian's mother was a prostitute addicted to crack. He reveals that his birth mother had committed suicide and he was taken to a hospital, where Grace Trevelyan Grey (Marcia Gay Harden) took care of him and later adopted him. Later, Ana is accosted by Elena, who demands she break up with Christian. Ana refuses Elena's warnings and tells her to stop meddling in their relationship. When they arrive home, they discover Ana's car had been vandalized.

A few days later, when the offices close at SIP, Jack tries to seduce Ana while she is in the office. Ana manages to escape from the office leaving Jack behind. When Christian finds out about this he arranges to have Jack dismissed from SIP. He also asks her to move in with him and she agrees. The next day, Ana gets Jack's now vacant position on a temporary basis as an acting editor for SIP.

Ana and Christian go to her apartment to retrieve her belongings. There, Leila appears and threatens her with a gun. When she shoots a wall behind Ana, Christian and Jason Taylor (Max Martini) appear and Christian subdues Leila. Ana, seeing that Christian needs to be satisfied by his controlling and dominant personality, walks out and does not return home until later at night. Christian is furious at her and she tries to calm him, saying that she needs time. Christian, who does not want to lose Ana, drops down to his knees and turns to a submissive. When she manages to bring him back, they kiss and have sex. During that night, Ana hears Christian having a nightmare and wakes him. He asks her to marry him and she says she needs time to consider this.

In the ensuing days, Christian has an out of town business trip. While piloting in his own helicopter, the helicopter suffers an engine breakdown, which causes Christian to ditch in a forest. Ana and Christian's family wait for more news regarding Christian. When Christian unexpectedly arrives, Ana is overwhelmed to see him safe. Ana then realizes the extent of her affections for Christian, and she accepts his marriage proposal.

At Christian's birthday party, Ana is surprised to see Elena there. When they announce their engagement, Elena becomes furious and calls Ana a gold digger. Ana angrily throws her drink at Elena and tells her to stop interfering in their relationship. Christian overhears the conversation and dismissively tells Elena that she taught him how to fuck and not how to love. Grace overhears that conversation, slaps Elena and orders her to leave her house. Christian then cuts all ties with Elena. Later, he proposes to Ana with a ring at the boathouse and she accepts. As the fireworks erupt in the sky, Jack watches the festivities from afar.

Cast

Production

A film adaptation of the first book was produced by Focus Features, Michael De Luca Productions, and Trigger Street Productions, with Universal Pictures and Focus Features securing the rights to the trilogy in March 2012. Universal is also the film's distributor. In March 2014, the producer for the first film, Dana Brunetti, had said there were, as of then, no solid plans to make a sequel. The first book of the series was adapted into a film by the same name and released on February 13, 2015. Before the first film premiered, there was still high anticipation from fans for the sequel to the film. After the first film premiered at a special fan screening in New York City on February 6, director Sam Taylor-Johnson announced that the book sequels Fifty Shades Darker and Fifty Shades Freed will also be adapted, with the first to be released in 2016. Right after the announcement, the director was telling Digital Spy that "it's not my decision, and I haven't been privy to any of the discussions."

On March 25, 2015, Taylor-Johnson officially left the franchise. On April 2, 2015, Deadline confirmed that De Luca had left Sony Pictures to return to Universal to produce the Fifty Shades sequels. It was later revealed that Taylor-Johnson would not return to direct the sequel. On April 22, 2015, it was announced that E.L. James' husband, Niall Leonard, would write the script for the sequel. In April 2015, Universal Pictures Chair Donna Langley told The Hollywood Reporter that the second installment will be "more of a thriller." In July 2015, it was confirmed that singer Rita Ora would be returning for the sequel to portray her role of Mia Grey. On August 20, 2015, it was revealed by Deadline that James Foley was the front-runner to direct the sequel and third film Fifty Shades Freed, while the studio was also eyeing some other directors including Rebecca Thomas, Mark Pellington, and Tanya Wexler, and talks with Foley had not yet begun. On November 12, 2015, TheWrap confirmed that Foley would direct both sequels which would be shot back-to-back in 2016, with Michael De Luca and Brunetti returning to produce along with E.L. James. Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan also would return for the sequels.

Casting

On January 28, 2016, Kim Basinger joined the film to play the role of Elena Lincoln, Grey's business partner and former lover, while Luke Grimes, Eloise Mumford and Max Martini would be returning for the sequel. On February 5, Bella Heathcote was cast as Leila, one of Grey's former submissives. In the same month, Eric Johnson was cast to play Jack Hyde. On February 18, Robinne Lee and Fay Masterson joined the film's cast. On February 26, Tyler Hoechlin was cast in the film to play Boyce Fox. On April 7, it was reported that Hugh Dancy had joined the film to play Dr. John Flynn, Grey's psychiatrist.

Filming

Principal photography was set to begin in Vancouver in June 2015. However, it was later postponed due to delays in the script being written. It was later confirmed that filming would begin in February 2016 in Vancouver, while the studio North Shore Studios was booked for the film. In November 2015, Universal Studios announced that the film and Freed both would be shot back-to-back with principal photography scheduled to commence in early 2016. Filming began in Paris and Vancouver from February 9, 2016, to July 12, 2016, under the working title, "Further Adventures of Max and Banks 2 & 3." Principal photography concluded on April 11, 2016.

Release

Fifty Shades Darker was released on February 10, 2017, by Universal Pictures.

Marketing

On September 15, 2016, Universal released the first official trailer. The trailer amassed an unprecedented 114 million views in its first 24 hours from various digital platforms such as Facebook, YouTube and Instagram. It received more than 2.5 million views on the film's official Facebook page. Over 39.4 million views came from North America, while 74.6 million views came from over 32 international markets, including the U.K., Mexico and France. This broke the previous record held by Star Wars: The Force Awakens when it racked up 112 million views in the same amount of time in October 2015. This record was surpassed by the second trailer for Disney's Beauty and the Beast with 127.6 million views in November 2016.

Rating

On November 10, 2016, like the first film, it was given an R rating by the MPAA for "strong erotic sexual content, some graphic nudity and language."

In Canada, the film was classified under 18A for mainly its sexual content in all provinces except Quebec. In Quebec, it was classified under 16+ for its "eroticism". In the United Kingdom, the film was given an 18 certificate for "strong sex".

In the Philippines, the film received an R-18 rating from the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB), which means that only moviegoers aged 18 years and above can watch the film due to its strong sexual content.

Music

The film's soundtrack was released in two separate versions; one for the 19 popular artists songs used in the film, and another separate release for the original score composed for the film by Danny Elfman. Two of Elfman's themes were also included on the popular artists version of the soundtrack release. The film's theme song, "I Don't Wanna Live Forever" by Zayn and Taylor Swift was released on December 9, 2016. The following month, on January 13, 2017, Halsey released the soundtrack's next single, "Not Afraid Anymore".

Box office

As of March 3, 2017, Fifty Shades Darker has grossed $107.6 million in the United States and Canada and $224.9 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $332.5 million, against a production budget of $55 million.

In the United States and Canada, Fifty Shades Darker opened alongside two other sequels, The Lego Batman Movie and John Wick: Chapter 2, and was projected to gross $32–40 million in its opening weekend. It earned $5.72 million from Thursday night previews at 3,120 theaters, down from the $8.6 million made by its predecessor two years prior, but still the sixth-best Thursday preview gross for an R-rated film. The film made $21.5 million on Friday, down 30% from the first film's $30 million opening day, but topped the box office. It went on to debut to $46.8 million, down 45% from the first film's $85.1 million and finishing second at the box office behind The Lego Batman Movie ($55.6 million). The film grossed $11 million on Valentine's Day, marking the second-highest amount for when the holiday fell on a weekday behind The Vow ($11.6 million in 2012), and bringing its five-day gross to $61.5 million. In its second weekend the film grossed $22 million, again finishing second at the box office behind The Lego Batman Movie. This marked a 55% drop from its first weekend gross and was almost exactly the amount the first film grossed in its second weekend ($22.3 million), only that marked a drop of 73.9% from its respective debut. In its third weekend it grossed $7.7 million, dropping to 5th at the box office.

Outside North America the film was simultaneously released in 57 countries and was expected to gross $115–155 million over its first three days. It ended up grossing $97.8 million in its opening weekend, the fourth largest R-rated international opening of all-time. Its top grossing locations included Germany ($11 million), the United Kingdom ($9.7 million), France ($8.7 million), Brazil ($7.5 million), Italy ($6.8 million) and Russia ($6.7 million).

Critical response

Much like its predecessor, Fifty Shades Darker received criticism for its screenplay, narrative and Dornan's performance. On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 9% based on 159 reviews, with an average rating of 3.3/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Lacking enough chemistry heat or narrative friction to satisfy, the limp Fifty Shades Darker wants to be kinky but only serves as its own form of punishment." On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating to reviews, the film has a score of 33 out of 100, based on 39 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale, an improvement over the "C+" earned by its predecessor.

Richard Roeper gave the film two out of four stars, saying: "This is one good-looking, occasionally titillating, mostly soapy and dull snooze-fest." Vince Mancini of Uproxx acknowledged the film's flaws but said watching the film was enjoyable, noting, "Narrative sloppiness aside, as an outsider, sitting through Fifty Shades Darker was a reasonably diverting experience, odd, dumb fun made even more fun by an audience that whooped and shouted at the screen during sex scenes. I didn’t really get it, but I enjoyed the feeling of them having fun, though at two hours plus, it’s a bit of a slog."

Manohla Dargis writing for The New York Times expressed similar ambiguous opinions regarding the content of the film stating:

I was still rooting for Ms. Johnson in Fifty Shades Darker, even if it proved tough going. Once again, the story involves the on-and-off, tie-her-up, tie-her-down romance between Anastasia Steele (Ms. Johnson) and her billionaire boyfriend, Christian Grey (Jamie Dornan), a guy with sculptured muscles, expensive playthings and dreary issues. Stuff and kink happens: A gun is fired, a would-be rapist is punished and Anastasia is bound hand and foot. Mostly, she advances and retreats (repeat), mewls and moans, and registers surprise each time Christian tries to dominate her outside the bedroom, evincing the kind of stalkerlike behavior that usually leads to restraining orders.

Richard Brody of The New Yorker found the film to be inferior to the first film in the planned trilogy and found fault in the change in directors from the first film stating:

Some of the greatest Hollywood melodramas (such as Douglas Sirk’s Magnificent Obsession) featured plotlines of an even more extravagant absurdity than that of Fifty Shades Darker. Their extreme artifice became a framework for extreme ideas and extreme emotions, even in an era of extreme public reticence about what goes on in the bedroom. The freedom of the current age of sexual explicitness invites realms of characterization—and of intimate imagination—that the first film in the Fifty Shades series hints at and the second one utterly ignores. Fifty Shades Darker's indifference to its characters’ identities, conflicts, and desires is matched by its indifference to its own cinematic substance. The film’s bland impersonality is grotesque; its element of pornography isn’t in its depiction of sex but in its depiction of people, of relationships, of situations that, for all their unusualness, bear a strong psychological and societal resonance. There’s nothing wrong with Fifty Shades Darker that a good director couldn’t fix.

Sequel

The final installment of the trilogy was filmed back-to-back with Fifty Shades Darker and is set for release on February 9, 2018.