It’s hard to bash a movie that never strived to reach any level of high cinematic art in the first place. Fifty Shades of Grey is supposed to be fun, mindless, sexy and stylishly cool—in this, it mostly succeeds. The kinky ‘love’ story between the young, book-loving Anastasia Steele (Dakota Johnson) and the hot billionaire Christian Gray (Jamie Dornan), who has a predilection for BDSM, never gets quite as dark or raunchy as many fans of the book might have hoped. But it’s still fun (not to mention refreshing) to see a young woman explore her sexuality, and yes, with that understand what her limits are.
Fans of the popular BBC show The Fall surely will enjoy watching Dornan (although, curiously enough, he has even more sex appeal in that role, as a bearded Irish serial killer). And Johnson, as the virginal young college graduate who falls for him—dark bedroom fantasies and all—is appealing in every scene. Both stars are worthy of better material, and I hope will go on to star in
more high-minded films, but they make the most of what they have to work with here.
Should You See It? Sure, if you’re looking for a fun, mindless night at the movies. -S.Z.
Viewed at Wehrenberg Des Peres 14 Cine