Titillating cinematography but non-climatic story

Rating: 2/10 (3 March 2015)

Curious to know what the public's interest was for this movie, I decided to spend the $12 to watch it. Done in the style of other erotic dramas—ie. 9-1/2 Weeks, Eyes Wide Shut, Unbearable Lightness of Being and Last Tango in Paris—this film differed by focusing more on the fringe life style of sadomasochistic sex. Unfortunately, even the most brilliantly filmed sex acts are a bore without a story to support it—no exposition of characters, no climax, no conclusion.
Former model Jamie Dornan portrays Christian, a successful and confident telecommunications executive and self-made millionaire who is so intrigued by Anastasia, a recent college graduate who interviews him on his biography, that he manipulatively seduces her into his private sanctuary of sadomasochism.
The lead characters spend so much time exploring each other's animal appetites that there is little time for dialogue. And, what dialog exists leads the audience on and on with no explanation of why the dominant Dornan became such a recluse that he compels his submissive mistresses to sign a lawyer-approved unorthodox non-disclosure agreement for engaging in a sexual relationship with him.
While newcomer, Dakota Johnson, does an amiable job of portraying Anastasia, an intellectual virgin probing the enlightening world of power and sex, Jamie Dornan's character is so unemotional and so lacking in personality that he should stay out of movies and stay on magazine covers. I expected at least some kind of interesting plot justifying Christian's perpetual rebuking of Anastasia's affection and his contempt for her curiosity in her trying to learn about his "troubled past." The movie seemed to be building to some sort of thematic climax but the ending was so abrupt that I was surprised and disappointed to see the credits roll. This was no Last Tango in Paris and not even in the same league with 9-1/2 weeks. This film is as much of an enigma as its title.
By Chris Kaufmann