Fifty Shades of Grey

Starring: Dakota Johnson, Jamie Dornan, Jennifer Ehle, Marcia Gay Harden, Eloise Mumford, Luke Grimes, Victor Rasuk, Max Martini
Directed by: Sam Taylor-Johnson
Rating: R
Genre: Drama, Romance
2015

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A college student (Dakota Johnson) falls for a young billionaire (Jamie Dornan), but as she gets closer, discovers he harbors a dark secret.

Review:
Tim: What can I say about Fifty Shades of Grey? It's probably not surprising that I have not read the book. I tend to stay away from anything that started as Twilight fan fiction. By all accounts, the writing is terrible (so I've heard many times). And yet, despite writer E.L. James being fairly talentless, something about this book struck a nerve with people. As such, we get one of the most talked about movies of the year. The problem this movie has is that while it certainly appeals to a specific audience, by its very nature, it causes all those other demographics to want to criticize it. This is an easy movie to hate, if you're looking to.

I went into it forcing myself to keep an open mind. So the book probably sucks. That doesn't mean director Sam Taylor-Johnson couldn't salvage a solid movie out of it. That's the mindset I entered this movie with. Unfortunately, while not the trainwreck some claim it to be, this is a fairly disappointing movie. I do want to stress that I'm not jumping on the bandwagon condemning this as utter garbage. There's a few things to like, but the source material ultimately brings the movie down.

I actually enjoyed seeing the developing relationship of Anastasia Steele and Christian Grey. It did not appear to be an especially healthy relationship, but the dysfunctional nature of it made it interesting. It does make you wonder, if a young person could be with a charming, kind billionaire (and enjoy the spoils of all that wealth), how much would they actually put up with? I'm not suggesting Ana doesn't actually love Christian, but unimaginable wealth influences relationships without a doubt.

I thought Dakota Johnson was fine in the lead role. I can't claim to be a fan of hers- while she might have some talent, she doesn't continually show it. There are scenes in this film where she's wonderful, and others where you question how much talent she actually has. For this role, though, they could have done a worse job in the casting department. Jamie Dornan wasn't the first choice for Christian Grey, but I thought he was fine the role. He likely doesn't live up to the image constructed in the books, but I thought he committed physically to the part and mostly did a good job. I'm not entirely convinced there was a great deal of chemistry between Johnson and Dornan, but it's easy to criticize something like that. On the whole, I'd say both were fine. The supporting cast is good- it was fun seeing Jennifer Ehle and Marcia Gay Harden, but no one else has much to do. This movie is all about the two leads.

One of my biggest complaints about this movie is that nothing really happens. Yes, there's a certain fascination as Anastasia and Christian explore their relationship, but there's not a lot of forward momentum. I wanted something external to happen, to see how an outside event would impact their relationship. That doesn't happen. The biggest influence might be Anastasia taking a quick trip to Georgia. That's not very exciting, when you think about it. The movie just kind of plows ahead, until you get to what has to be one of the most disappointing endings I've seen. I know there's two more books/movies, but it's incredibly unsatisfying to spend two hours with characters and then feel like the writer stopped mid-sentence because her hand cramped up. The ending is bad.

I do have to mention the most controversial aspect of the film, the BDSM scenes. Now, on the one hand, I actually appreciated this, because it's something that people are apparently into, and you don't often see that depicted on screen. One of the reason I love movies is because you can be exposed to things you'd never otherwise encounter. I did appreciate the (somewhat disturbing) look into sadomasochism. That being said, the movie clearly toned these scenes down. While there's a lot of nudity from Johnson, many of the scenes were fairly tame. I get the desire to get to an R rating, but with all the buzz from the books, I'd bet many readers were fairly disappointed that things didn't get more intense. It is hard to shake the idea that the film is primarily focused on the sex scenes, and everything else is just filler. That's not how you make a good movie.

While I didn't hate Fifty Shades of Grey (it looks pretty sharp, for example), there just wasn't enough here to make a very compelling movie. I think Sam Taylor-Johnson did a very good job of trying to turn a bad, boring script into something more. She didn't fully succeed, but this movie easily could have been utterly unwatchable. Instead, we get an average film. While that's never good, I am thankful this movie wasn't worse.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend:
I would never recommend reading the books, so I don't know