Fifty Shades of Dakota.

Rating: 6/10 (8 August 2015)

Fifty Shades of Grey (2015): Dir: Sam Taylor-Johnson / Cast: Dakota Johnson, Jamie Dornan, Eloise Mumford, Victor Rasuk, Marcia Gay Harden: Erotic film that dives deep within the lifestyles of hardcore bondage and sadistic sexual play. Based on the trilogy of popular novels of the same name, Jamie Dornan plays young wealthy Christian Grey, and Dakota Johnson plays Anastasia Steele, a college student who interviews him when her roommate was unable to. The interview leaves Grey curios of her innocence and he makes an appearance at the hardware store she works at. This leads to a hook up where he states that he doesn't do romance. She is shocked when he unlocks a secret door in his mansion to reveal the Red Room, which consists of whips, chains, handcuffs, floggers, and various other devices used for hardcore sexual activity. Similar to the equally erotic 9 ½ Weeks, director Sam Taylor-Johnson highlights with great uses of gray, white, black, and particularly red, with effective slow motion during a climatic flogging sequence. Starts out well but after the Red Room is introduced then the sex scenes become repetitious. The ending is similar to 9 ½ Weeks with the close of an elevator door conveying an exhaust of patience in the face of emotional endurance. Dornan plays Grey as someone bland, unreadable, and unsympathetic in his creepy demeanor. Johnson bravely plays off the shock effect of the sadism she is introduced to and endures its worst. Supporting roles by Eloise Mumford as her roommate and Marcia Gay Harden as Mrs. Grey are cardboard. Sexual activity can be created or it can reach a gray area of question. Score: 6 ½ / 10