The MPAA has spoken! The organization responsible for rating films has now seen Fifty Shades of Grey and has crowned it with an R rating for “unusual behavior.” Is it us, or do they sound a wee bit prude?
We’ve all been wondering exactly how the filmmakers were going to turn the soft-core bondage/S&M book, Fifty Shades of Grey, into a film that we could actually watch in public with other people sitting next to us without being mortified.
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Clearly, director Sam Taylor-Johnson’s intention was to make a very sexy movie and she’s probably breathing a sigh of relief it didn’t earn an NC-17 rating, which would have meant box office death.
According toVariety, the MPAA gave 50 Shades the “Restricted” rating because of “strong sexual content including dialogue, some unusual behavior and graphic nudity.” OK, “strong sexual content” we expected and the “graphic nudity’ we really, really hoped for, but we’re left scratching our heads over this “unusual behavior” business.
Let’s look at a photo from the movie for some clues:
The above photo shows a naked Christian Grey (Jamie Dornan) playing the piano in his city loft, while Anastasia Steele (Dakota Johnson) stands across the room wearing only a silk sheet. The marble floors are so spotless, they reflect the light like a shiny coin.
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OK, we have to admit this particular scenario does appear “unusual” to us, considering most of our men roll over and snore themselves to sleep after engaging in some light sadomasochism rather than rocking the baby grand with some Chopin tunes. But we can certainly think of weirder things.
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Let’s look at another photo:
Having a special drawer for one’s sexual accoutrements doesn’t seem strange to us, but perhaps the MPAA found it odd that Christian Grey would own blindfolds not only in soft pastels, but also in bold primary colors. We’ve only ever opted for the standard black blindfold, so having such a large color palate when it comes to visual restriction devices does seem a tad “unusual.”
One last photo:
While a lot of us bring our hands together and say “Namaste” in yoga class, most of us don’t do it naked with our mouth hanging open. If this is, in fact, an image of Anastasia bowing in Pranamasana, we’ll concede to the MPAA that it does raise some eyebrows.
The bottom line, however, is that we can only guess at what the MPAA deemed “unusual behavior” until we actually get to see the movie on Valentine’s Day. Until then, we can only dream.
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