Forty Shades of Blue is one of those films that cineastes love to champion. It's all about the ineffable pain of being alive. And it communicates this by meandering around for a couple of hours while a few depressed and misunderstood characters collide with each other and screw things up. As far as that goes, this is a pretty good film. It does all that stuff better than most films of its kind.
The problem, however, is the same with this film as with all the others that are just like it (Junebug, We Don't Live Here Anymore, Keane, Broken Flowers, etc.): it's just not very interesting. And yes, you can make the argument that these films are far more indicative of what life is like for an average person than something like Reservoir Dogs. And they are. But that still doesn't make them interesting, sorry. In short, this is the type of movie that you don't need to pause to take a bathroom break. You might miss someone being sad or looking sadly at something beautiful but so what? There are ten more of those moments, dragged out equally long, up ahead.
I am not a plot supremacist. It doesn't all have to be about the What of the thing. But if you ask me, the What should at least be marginally interesting. I could relate what the What of Forty Shades of Blue is but why bother? It doesn't actually have anything to do with the point of the film. Some people might find that beautiful. I just find it boring. I'm bored because I know five minutes in that someone, a hopelessly trapped and depressed someone, will make a bad decision (in this case to sleep with her boyfriend's son but it could just as easily have been to sleep with a best friend or to quit a job or to beat up someone, whatever). Then, rather than deal with this situation and its attendant causes, the person will retreat, not talk about the problem and get pissed. Maybe this anger will come out in inappropriate ways (hateful public speeches, tirades against the kids, whatever) and then the film will end with nothing much having been resolved.
Well, congratulations, that sure does reflect the way a lot of people live their lives. But those people suck. And it's their inability to take control and communicate that makes them suck. I hate these people in real life. And I hate them in films. So again, congratulations, you've effectively rendered some fictional people I find as infuriating as real people. Bully for you.
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