Underdeveloped, not erotic, but not that bad either

Rating: 6/10 (2 February 2017)

There has been so much fuss about the book on which this movie is based upon, and the movie itself that I decided that I give it a try out of curiosity.
Fifty Shades of Gray is mostly an exploration of erotic love and of relationship dynamics, which is what is shown most of the time in the film. Two people fall in love but there are important things that aren't provided by the other, things demanded by the other that cannot be easily fulfilled by their partner. The story is also about a girl growing up into a woman, i.e. a girl going from wanting to please to be loved, to a woman who has needs and is not afraid of letting the relationship go if those aren't fulfilled. The story also explores why some men, in this case Grey, are into BDSM, why do they need to punish women and have a dominating sexual relationship to get erotic pleasure. I thought that all those things are real issues that affect real people all the time. I've come across directly or indirectly with men who were very similar to Grey, a sweet well-mannered outside and twisted souls inside that were into practicing BDSM to feel "a man".
For me this movie is nothing to be passionate about, in any way. I didn't find the movie as shocking or bad as some people portray it, but I found it underdeveloped: sketched story, superficial exploration of the characters, TV-film production not Big-Screen production, and not really erotic.
The main point of the film is getting to know why Grey is into kinky stuff, but this is barely sketched because this is, clearly, the first of a series of movies, and it was clear even before the last installment came along.
I thought that Dakota Johnson does a good job in the film, perhaps the best of the cast, and goes from naive girl to a woman in a believable way.
I thought that Dornan was not the actor for this role because the character needed of somebody with more dramatic register and a bit of an edge. Dornan doesn't have it, unfortunately. I thought he would be great in a normal romance movie, not in this one.
I thought the Dornan and Johnson have no real chemistry on camera and the erotic scenes didn't turn me on at all, which is totally anticlimactic. I remember, in contrast, how good Nine Weeks and Half was at exploring a couple's intimate relationship with eroticism. The art of the erotic is not in having a sex scene, it is in the way you construct that scene and, most importantly, in the way the two people involved in it seemed to be into each other and enjoying it. I felt that Dornan and Johnson weren't fully present there.
To the puritans and haters I would say that there are few sex scenes in the film but not too many. That there is nudity but no full frontal nudity and no genitalia are on display. That this is supposedly portraying a BDSM relationship but it is actually showing more a BDSM fantasy that real BDSM. That even though the male character is dominating the woman character, they have fully agreed on advance on that being consensual. That although there are sex scenes, there are films that aren't portrayed a sex movies and have plenty more sex and rougher one and nobody focus on those things when commenting on the film. Finally, if erotic scenes and intimate relationships really worry you, or you cannot deal with them, don't watch the movie :).
Overall, an interesting plot, never fully developed, not a good direction or production, but not as bad as I expected.