Review of Fifty Shades of Grey (2015) by Matt B — 09 May 2017

I did enjoy Fifty Shades of Grey. There. I said it. I also enjoyed the books a lot merely because of how horrible the prose was. This is an enjoyably silly, schmaltzy love story to start the year off with that fans of the book will love but non-fans will HATE. The love scenes are pretty sexy and Dakota Johnson is TERRIFIC as Anastasia Steele. Jamie Dornan is a tad stiff, but that's only because the script has nothing for him to do but stand around and brood with his shirt off.

Then again, it's a VERY silly movie, so silly that I can't quite recommend you pay to see it in theaters. There's practically no plot. The entire movie is about Anastasia deciding if she should become Christian Grey's submissive or not. Every scene is him asking her "Have you made a decision yet?" and her responding "No, but soon..." Come on! Give us a better story! There's also the fact that the supporting actors, all very good (especially Eloise Mumford, as Anastasia's roommate), are COMPLETELY underwritten.

Let's just hope that Fifty Shades Darker (which does have a better plot) is a better movie.