Review of Fifty Shades of Grey (2015) by Virginia A — 18 Dec 2015

Firstly I'm not quite sure how I feel about the movie. In all honesty I have read the book and I can safely say the movie is far more toned down and hence more compelling to watch than it was to read, yet I felt like the sex scenes were never quite sexy just really awkward.

And hence my confusion with this movie because when its not showing a sex scene the movie was actually quite comedic and Dakota Johnson kills it adding far more layers to the one-dimensional Ana of the book.

Jamie Dornan on the other hand can be quite wooden (pun not intended, okay maybe it was HA) and doesn't necessarily catch the tortured soul of Christian Grey. I mean lets be honest here the books are complete shit so there's not much working for the movie from the beginning and secondary characters are given about a minute's screen time each and hence totally underutilised.

It's beautifully shot and well-lit and props to the actors for being comfortable to strip down next to nothing but the movie lacks substance and doesn't explore the psychology of BDSM culture.

In summation I think Dakota Johnson was the highlight of this film and I hope she finds better work as she has the acting chops. This review feels awkward sorry. 2/5.