Fails To Translate Kinkiness On The Big Screen

Rating: 4/10 (31 October 2015)

Fifty Shades of Grey is a film adaptation of the novel of the same title by E.L. James that tells about the steamy tale between an English Literature college student who began an awkward relationship with a young billionaire.It stars Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan together with Jennifer Ehle,Eloise Mumford and Marcia Gay Harden.
The film by Samuel Taylor-Johnson starts when Anastasia Steel covers for her roommate Kate Kavanagh and gets to interview Christian Grey,a young business magnate for their school paper.Upon their meeting,they became fascinated and interested with each other that they decided to get to know more of each other.This led to a complex relationship that is characterized by BDSM.
It could have shown great promise as we get to know Anastasia and Christian and how their relationship started and later progressed developed when sadomasochism became an important part of it.Too bad that both Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan lacked chemistry that their relationship just seemed more like a contract negotiation rather than a romantic relationship between two complex characters and conflicted individuals.Their portrayal were simply much too be desired from that the viewer would not be simply interested on them.Added to that,the sadomasochistic sex scenes were simply horrible as they lacked realism.It was obvious that both actors are uncomfortable with these scenes and lack believability while performing them.Also,it was evident that both Dakota and Jamie were never at ease with each other.
Aside from that,the Kelly Marcel's screenplay provides a lot of confusion and many unanswered questions into the story.One watching it may feel frustrated in trying to get to know more about Anastasia and Christian as to their eccentric behavior and weird personalities.In the end,the complexities on their characters made the story a simplistic one that a romantic comedy would have had more depth and would make much more sense.What's worse,the conclusion would simply left the viewer hanging as it ended abruptly.It was obviously a sequel- baiting for the viewer but it just highlighted what a poor movie the producers have made.
If there is one thing that I would have credited to the movie,it will probably be the guts of the producers to do a movie about BDSM for these aren't really familiar themes made for films.Too bad that Fifty Shades of Grey fell way short of the expectations as it simply failed to translate the kinkiness into the big screen.Despite the fact that it made lots of money at the box office,it only proves that sex remains a motivating factor for people to come into the theaters.