Fifty Shades of Grey was actually a beautiful movie.

Rating: 10/10 (13 February 2015)

Just finished watching Fifty Shades of Grey and I gotta say... the film was beautiful. Yes, I am using the word beautiful to describe this movie. I went into the theater completely prepared to be embarrassed because of how graphic it was supposed to be, but I was extremely surprised by how I actually felt. I watched all of the scenes that were made available and thought that it all seemed a bit awkward, but it was only because there was no background music or noise. Watching the actual scenes in the movie was a whole other experience.
The movie is getting a really bad rep because of the bad writing and graphic scenes that are in the book that it is based on. However, the movie is not just a "sex movie" like everyone says. It's pretty hilarious and romantic. The sex scenes were extremely dialed down and they all served a purpose. If you thought the pointless sex in The Wolf of Wall Street was acceptable, then you would be more than okay with the content in this Fifty Shades. Before I watched Fifty Shades of Grey, I watched a lot of interviews with the cast of the film and was confused as to how they could possibly describe the sex scenes as being classy and elegant. But then again, all I had to compare it to were scenes from Game of Thrones, True Blood, The Wolf of Wall Street, etc... After watching this film, I can honestly say that I completely agree with the cast. There was nothing "dirty" or "wrong" about what I was seeing on the screen. Sam Taylor-Johnson, the director, did an excellent job with this movie. She made it very tasteful and easier to accept. This film could have gone in a very bad direction, but thank god it didn't.
For those of you that think that this movie is glorifying abusive relationships, think again because I think that it actually empowers women. I'm sure that you can argue, with quotes from the book, that I'm wrong, but there are many differences between the film and the book. Let me remind all of you that the book is a little over 500 pages and the movie is only about 2 hours long. Obviously, they had to cut a lot of things out, including the blue string scene that I'm sure a lot of people are aware of. In my opinion, they cut out many of the scenes that were considered controversial. I watched the movie looking for signs of an abusive relationship, but I really didn't see anything of that nature. In fact, all I saw was this confident and empowered woman that made all of her own decisions. She was not forced to do anything that she didn't want to do. She wanted to explore Christian's dark world and her own sexuality. You can argue that Christian abuses her physically and emotionally, but he does what she tells him to do. When she says stop he stops. He tries to make it work with her.
Moving on to something lighter, the comedy in this movie is on point! There were many "laugh- out-loud" moments that gave the movie a lighter mood. Those scenes were there to show that Christian and Ana's relationship was not all dark and serious. I mean they are both young people in their twenties that should be having fun!
Dakota Johnson gave a phenomenal performance and did everything right! She was confident, awkward, shy, and funny all at the same time. Jamie Dornan also did an amazing job as Christian Grey. They had great chemistry.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that you should give the movie a chance. If you hate the book, it doesn't necessarily mean that you will hate the movie. I have read many reviews, written by skeptics, saying that they ended up loving it. Don't let the bad reviews or even the book itself stop you from seeing the movie. I was not disappointed at all with the finished product, even though they cut out a few scenes that I loved. It is perfect just the way it is. (I apologize for any grammatical mistakes... Unlike Ms. Steele, I am not an English major)