Yeah. It's THAT bad.

Rating: 1/10 (12 March 2015)

I read the books for my book club and agreed with everyone they were terrible. I went with a friend who was dying to see the film. I spent the entire length of the movie wishing I was anywhere else in the world.
There was so little chemistry between Christian and Ana that the view has a tough time believing they are falling in love. Ana is basically an abused woman who doesn't know enough to leave the man who is abusing her.
Although, I must admit, movie Ana is slightly less annoying than book Ana, which is good because I don't think I could have handled 2 hours of that annoying crybaby. I get that her character is supposed to be naive, but she doesn't have the maturity of a woman who just graduated college with a degree in English Lit. She has the vocabulary of a teenager, which makes watching sex scenes extremely awkward and uncomfortable.
As for Christian being sexy? Jamie Dornan is hot. Absolutely. Christian, on the other hand isn't. I thought maybe they'd make him more likable than his character in the book, but I just don't find what boils down to physical abuse sexy.
The movie touches on the sub/dom culture, but in the end, it's as though it was written by a 14 year old girl with no sexual experience to draw on. The main characters are flat, and the secondary characters aren't developed at all. Kate seems flaky, Jose seems like a stalker, and Elliot seems like an idiot. Ana's mom seems like she is on some sort of drugs and Christians family is super creepy. Not sure if it's bad casting or bad writing.
See it if you must, but I don't recommend this to anyone. There are so many better ways to spend 2 hours out there!