Disappointing

Rating: 3/10 (13 February 2015)

I went to see this without any particular expectations. I heard the sound and fury all over the social media from fans who loved the book to people saying it was all about rape and abuse. I saw it, ironically, in that grey area. It starts out (and continues through much of the movie) with some romantic-comedy elements, funny parts that a couple times had me laughing aloud. But it was also, in many ways, formulaic. How many times do we need to tell the story of Prince Charming romancing the pauper girl, after all? I think we all saw "Pretty Woman" in the ago. We all read and/or saw "Cinderella." It's been done too many times. Come up with something fresh already, for God's sake.
Now, I didn't see anything I would fairly call "abuse" in the movie. There were several sex scenes in it, a few spankings, and a lot of teasing. Christian was going on all the time about her consent and I don't recall an event of him treating with her outside her consent, which she always gave him. Anastasia was, pardon my French, prick-teasing Christian throughout the movie, and Christian was trying to purchase her affections. I'll also say the whole sub-theme of anyone with alternative sexual predilections being portrayed as psychotics or trauma-mommas is also overdone, and it misleads people about what's honestly a big segment of peoples' sexuality, and I find that hatred of S&M practitioners to be prejudiced and sad. I won't spoil the movie for those wanting to see it, but it ends, I thought, with Anastasia being the emotionally abusive one, and as the final credits rolled, I decided I had fondness for neither character, thinking they deserved one another so nobody else had to be saddled with them. They were both bleeding assholes earning none of my empathy. In all, FSOG tried and failed. Save your money and see something else.