In anticipation of the inevitably horrible and hopefully last—if there is anything good that comes out of 2018, please let it be that this is the last—of the Fifty Shades movies, Fifty Shades Freed, Liam Payne and Rita Ora have released the music video for “For You.”
This song is featured prominently on the soundtrack for the upcoming film and is—much like the previous movies were and Fifty Shades Freed will be—terrible. The song itself is much as one might expect from a “film” such as this, which is to say, bad. It’s pseudo-romantic, it’s a duet, it’s generic, and worst of all, it’s dumb. But even putting lyrics and song quality aside, the music video is still terrible.
“For You” features the two singers, Payne and Ora, singing in isolated settings. Ora, replete in flowing red dress, yearns for the one she loves as she romps and plays through an extravagant garden, hedge maze, and large bed of flowers—places very similar to those the rest of us go to when pining for our lost loves. Payne, for his own part, looks adequately sullen and contemplative in his perfect suit as he sits in a exorbitant mansion. You know, just like the rest of us.
The two sing in solitude for a while as the music video feigns subtlety by interjecting shots of meaningful objects to signify a rekindling of their sexual attraction. Blooming flowers and actual fireworks are shoehorned into this music video in a blatant abuse of poetic license. The two are even shown floating—in the clearest use of wires outside of Cirque du Soleil—to slam viewers in the face with a metaphor about the weightlessness of love.
Instead of using the visual and auditory medium to convey some sort of deeper meaning about the nature of love, or even something visually interesting, “For You” does this. The very recently aforementioned “this” is bad and generic music, bad and generic visuals, and bad and generic “hidden” meaning. At the very least, “For You” is a bad song for a movie that cannot—it’s entirely outside of the powers of human imagination—be good. So take solace in the fact that a better song was not wasted on Fifty Shades Freed. For that matter, take solace in the fact that a better movie was not wasted on “For You.”
Featured Image by Island Records
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