Really...not bad

Rating: 9/10 (13 February 2015)

I haven't read the book so I can't compare it to the film, but I went to the theater expecting this flick to be a real dog and I was very pleasantly surprised. I think there is a basic truth exposed here (so to speak) which is that in almost every relationship men and women have different ideas about what the ideal partner should be like--how the other should think and behave--and each is more or less frustrated when the other person fails in some way to meet that standard. I was totally engrossed in watching this theme play out in this film.
I don't think this is a movie for everyone, because there are some fairly explicit scenes, but having seen "The Story of 'O'" when it originally came out in the '70s as well as the more recent film "Secretary" with James Spader and Maggie Gyllenhaal, I wasn't shocked in the least by the short scenes of BDSM in "Fifty Shades". By comparison with those movies--which granted were not seen by many people since the first was a foreign film and the second was an indie film--this movie is fairly tame and the sex scenes are actually quite artistic.
Anastasia was really quite a strong female character. I admired that, and evidently so did Christian Grey.