Long Story Short:

Literature student Anastasia has the opportunity to interview multi billionaire Christian Grey. Right from the start the two feel very attracted and oddly fascinated by each other. When they start spending more time together, Christian introduces Anastasia to a dark but exciting world of sexual desire, whips, chains, rules and obedience. But is pleasure and pain equal to love or is there a difference?

Review:
I am reviewing this movie simply as a movie and not as a book adaptation. I have started the book but I wasn’t sold after the first 20 pages mainly because the way it was written wasn’t appealing to me, so I put it aside.

Unlike what other people claim I think there is a chemistry between the two leads. I am guessing that given the explicit topic shooting the movie was a little uncomfortable for Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan, and therefore they seemed naturally awkward but that gave the movie a certain charm. However, because of this awkwardness it was hard to imagine that Dornan was that kind of man who likes to dominate others, at the same time it’s usually still waters that run deep. But in this case it didn’t quite add up.

The sex scenes were actually underwhelming and not as graphic or erotic as advertised in the trailers, and knowing that this movie was targeting mainly women I think they didn’t show enough of Christian Grey nudity-wise. The main focus was on Anastasia. Is the world not ready to see a penis on the big screen? I understand that adding more nudity would have caused the movie to be released in a limited number of theaters which play movies with NC-17 rating but I feel like since the major focus was the sex they should have dared to do so, and offered the movie on demand at the same time. I am sure many fans would have been more pleased then.

I am not entirely sure if the creator of the story knows anything about SM but I think the way it is portrayed in the movie is a little too harmless. SM can go way deeper than that.

Back to the movie, I think the story is a little lame, however, the two lead actors kept me interested and tried to carry the thin content somewhere, but at the end I wasn’t sold.

I was hoping for more redeeming qualities and complexity and depth of the characters but I didn’t get that. The only suspense the story has is the dark secret that Christian Grey carries that apparently explains why he has those sexual preferences. Not knowing what the secret was I already guessed it and had it confirmed by a friend who has read the book. So it is not really hard to guess.

Again, as someone who hasn’t really read the book and didn’t have any expectations of how the characters should look like, I thought Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan did a nice job. I also love the soundtrack. But the storyline needed more depth and thought.

If you like the erotic kind of movies you might want to try Nine 1/2 Weeks (1986), Eyes Wide Shut (1999) or Romance (1999) first.

Rating: 5/10

Published by Elias

Biracial Kid, born in the late 80s. I write short stories, lyrics, books, I love Food, and I watch as many TV shows and movies as I can. My dream is to share my happiness and joy with the world... and to open a luxury hotel. View all posts by Elias