Fifty Shades of romanticised domestic abuse

Rating: 1/10 (5 March 2015)

Right. First thing's first, before I launch into an enraged monologue, I will attempt to review Fifty Shades of Grey as a film, as this is technically a film review. It is awful. Not so-bad-it's- good awful. Not hilarious awful. Not even a friend made me watch it and I fell asleep awful. Actually awful. I have personally never seen either of the lead actors in anything else but I've seen better acting in the amateur dramatics plays in my local village after everyone's had six too many pints at the pub before the evening performance. Not that they can be entirely blamed of course, when the film (and, I'm assuming, the book, which I never intend to read) has utterly no plot and the writing is genuinely embarrassingly bad.
So yes, the film is terrible, but now to the real issue. I had heard a lot of the controversy about this film and feel strongly about some of the issues raised, but felt as though I should watch the film so that my arguments would been grounded in actual knowledge, so as not to seem hypocritical or ill-informed. So I sat down and watched it. I can honestly say I have never been so traumatised in my life. To add some context, I am a great lover of horror films, and this film was the most terrifying experience of my life. I cried on multiple occasions during the film and when it finished, I sat in a state of shock for a whole ten minutes, my body shaking uncontrollably.
As someone who has been a victim of domestic abuse in the past, I tend to avoid films that depict violence, control and emotional manipulation in the context of a relationship. Films such as these are usually marketed as psychological thrillers. Not romances. The way in which Fifty Shades was marketed genuinely appals me. The fact that audiences are being told that domestic abuse is not only acceptable because 'he had a tough childhood' but also romantic and desirably is utterly disgusting. It's not only unpleasant, distasteful and misogynistic, it goes much further than that. It is violating, insulting and most of all actually traumatic for people like me. For a film to bring back old memories of abuse is bad enough. For that same film to convey that those experiences were not horrific but in fact romantic and exciting is utterly unforgivable.
If you have been a victim of abuse, do not under any circumstances watch this film as it will cause you a great deal of pain. Anyone else reading this, understand that Fifty Shades of Grey is a horrendously misinformed mistake that should never have found its way into popular culture.