Fifty Shades of Grey

Dorian, pardon, Christian Grey and his "Fifty Shades" cannot claim to be a masterpiece of world cinema. The setting of the "young billionaire" and other scriptwriters' blunders are laughable. Apple and Audi advertisements are intrusively present.

It's amusing to watch the plot twists shamelessly copied from the "Twilight" saga and Kim Basinger, who played the lead role in the once-cult "9½ Weeks", where she herself was the cruel, sadistic demon of the main character.

In short, let’s leave it to film critics to award "Shades" with Golden Raspberry Awards again.

But if we move away from the artistic value of the "Fifty Shades" films to the psychological portraits of its two main characters, there’s a lot to find interesting.

A boy traumatized in childhood, when placed in the hands of a dominant woman, easily adopts the idea of domination with her strict rules, simplifying life and creating an illusion of safety.

For Christian, the very idea of love and attachment seems incredibly frightening. A person with an ambivalent attachment style tends to demonstrate independence and distance in relationships while suffering immensely when the object of affection is even briefly absent. Counter-dependent behavior in this case serves to ensure the person’s safety by maintaining distant relationships with everyone without exception. The idea of domination allows him to satisfy his sexual needs while also playing out a desire for revenge against the "bad" female object—the "bad mother" who not only was cruel (burn marks resemble cigarette burns, which someone extinguished on a child) but also failed to feed him and later died from a drug overdose, betraying and abandoning him.

Against this backdrop, the idea of a "contract" with women, where sexual relationship rules are clearly defined, seems quite logical.

It’s not hard to guess why the filmmakers needed the titillation of the "red room of pain" with all its BDSM attributes and a billionaire protagonist, but it fits perfectly into his psychological profile. Christian is a child traumatized in early childhood by a prostitute and drug addict mother who died of an overdose when he was four. A child who sat beside his mother’s corpse for three days. A teenager who at 15 developed a sexual addiction to an adult woman, internalizing the idea that sex should follow a sadomasochistic script where there’s no room for love or genuine relationships. Over time, it’s natural that Christian becomes a man for whom "making love" is impossible—only "rough sex" is possible.

"By submitting, I found freedom: no responsibility, no obligations—total safety"—this line from Grey encapsulates the essence of infantile dependent relationships he embodies due to his lack of other experiences.

The idea of ensuring absolute safety in everything is a recurring theme in both parts of the franchise, which makes sense given the protagonist’s character traits.

Naturally, the most intriguing aspect is how realistic Grey’s transformation is—from a man who summons women into sexual encounters with phrases like "in 15 minutes in the playroom," forbids any physical contact, and scorns "vanilla relationships" to a man capable of sincere love and deep attachment.

So, on one side of the scale are Christian’s beliefs about the dangers of long-term close attachment, rooted in his relationship with his birth mother and his six-year BDSM relationship in his teens. On the other side are his relationship with his adoptive family, who accepted him as their own, and his love for the extraordinary and strong-willed young woman Anastasia, who gradually dismantles Christian’s belief in the dangers of relationships through her words and actions.

It’s fascinating to observe how a person can recognize their problem through their partner—in this case, the protagonist succinctly formulates it: "I’m not a dominant; I’m an ordinary sadist. I get aroused by punishing women who remind me of my mother."

When faced with the choice between losing a loved one and reenacting old trauma, a person can decide to change.

Have you noticed that not everyone traumatized in childhood ends up in dead-end personal situations? That not everyone with poor parenting later struggles with a lack of good relationships?—Yes, much of it is a matter of luck (like birth)—whom you meet and with whom you choose to share your life. Very often, a partner’s influence can change a person for the better. And such "love therapy" is priceless!

That’s why, for me, this film was about precisely that. It’s just that modern heroines now save not monsters but vampires and billionaire perverts.