Audrey

i remember the first time i watched this i thought "wow... i feel really connected to this movie... and i have no idea why..." you were in love with a girl audrey. that's why.

i might've interpreted this differently than others did, but here's go nothing. hey letterboxd police the opening scene immediately made me clock that this was going to be a metaphor for the power dynamics between male and female, specifically between a male employer and his female employees. a male's manipulation of women within a power structure targets ones that are young and vulnerable. lee, a young woman fresh out of an institution, has a room similar to one of a 9 year old. she cuts herself, she speaks and interprets things as if she's a child, not a grown adult. grey, concluded from their interview, decided to take advantage of this naïveté, and use her as a beacon of his own pleasure. he changes her from a woman who once viewed life more innocently, into one craving male validation to obtain pleasure for herself. while you can argue this is who she's meant to be all along, her change in character, dialect, and even clothing doesn't occur without a symbolic purpose. the end, however, flips the script almost entirely. female dominance is unnoticed, as when societally, men have always been the superior. if grey had been the greater force, he would've done a lot more to stop her hunger strike. yet he caved; they fell in love, got married, and continued on. this wasn't just softcore porn with no purpose, you just didn't realize how powerless and weak grey was in the end. she did the exact same thing to him as he did to her, except she found his weaknesses and turned it into a weapon of pleasure. she achieved exactly what he wanted the whole time; he created her from his own temptations. long story short they're both freaks and hell yeah happy marriage let's go