wooden Grey, bad dialog, contract talk

Rating: 3/10 (2 December 2015)

Mysterious billionaire Christian Grey (Jamie Dornan) is going to be the commencement speaker at Washington State University. English lit student Anastasia Steele (Dakota Johnson) takes her sick roommate Kate Kavanagh (Eloise Mumford)'s place to interview him for the school paper. He becomes completely taken with her.
I had to bail on this movie after the first ten minutes. It's so flat that I couldn't take it. Jamie Dornan is an Abercrombie & Fitch model without the acting skills. Dakota Johnson is so fake mousy that it almost put me to sleep. I had to readjust my sensibilities to continue watching after a little break. The courtship is boring as hell. It has a passable rescue at a bar. Johnson has some comedic chops but she's playing with a blank partner. The dialog is laughably bad. However not everything is lost. There is some potential as the characters talk about submission.
A real discussion about S&M could be sexy, edgy and compelling. Then the movie grinds down with contract talk. Nothing can be less compelling than a ten page agreement. All the edginess and sexiness go out the window. The sexual encounters have its fair share of nudity but it's not that shocking. It's simply boring. The final encounter does have a little more emotional content but that's too late to save this movie.