50 Shades of Gimme a Break: Movie Edition

If you want to see a really excellent, well-reasoned review of this movie, check out Billy Merritt's Living the Romantic Comedy blog.

Since you're here instead, I'm just going to share my favorite moment from the movie and let you judge for yourself.

The Setting: The Red Room of Pain--Christian Grey's "playroom."

The Setup: Christian has just buckled a mostly naked Ana into leather cuffs and notched the attached carabiner into a hook set into a metal frame. No, she's not, like, hanging by her wrists or anything. Her feet are solidly on the ground.

The Scene: He slides off her last remaining article of clothing, her panties, holds them to his face and breathes deeply.

I think it was supposed to be erotic, but instead it just came across really pervy, like he handcuffed her so he could steal her underpants and sniff them. I mean, I know a woman who divorced her second husband when she caught him doing that with her teenaged daughter's undies.

There's been a lot of furor around Social Media World about how Christian and Ana have an Abusive Relationship and how this Sets a Bad Example for Young Girls and Completely Misses the Point About What a Loving Relationship Really Is.

And I'll give you all that, although I think if we're going to stop young women from watching movies that romanticize dysfunctional relationships we should also ban young men from watching movies that glorify war.

Anyway, my two cents is, if you're looking for a movie with a laugh-until-you-pee-your-pants funny scene, you could do a lot worse than 50 Shades.