Film Review - 50 Shades of Grey (2015)

Based off of the successful bestselling novel, 50 Shades of Grey tells the story of Anna Steele (Dakota Johnson) who meets the mysterious and charismatic Christian Grey (Jamie Dornan) while doing an interview for a student paper but Mr Grey is more than meets the eye.

Part of me was not that keen on seeing this film before deciding to do so primarily because I don't particularly mind those R18+ sex titles especially ones I've seen on the VHS tapes I collect (9 1/2 Weeks, Whore, Boxing Helena, Basic Instinct and Colour of Night to name a few) so as a result of that (please note that I'll like these films if they're well made) I did get turned around to seeing this film, could it deliver though?

Well no it couldn't as this was for me the most uncomfortable cinema experience I've had since seeing Kick Ass 2 in 2013 and by that I mean that I just did not enjoy what I was watching very much at all but before I get into that I will talk about what I did like and that was Johnson who is a very warm and engaging screen presence but at times she appears out of her depth in this role and I hate to say it cause she really does try her best but in the end she is miscast and someone like Jennifer Lawrence and Margot Robbie would've been better suited for this role instead but I highly doubt they would've done it if asked.

As for the film around her well it doesn't work for these reasons:

- The first is Dornan as Mr Grey, quite frankly Dornan is very stiff in this role and some of his scenes just border on ridiculous given the dialogue he's asked to say, I know he was a replacement for Charlie Hunnam who left this role but he just isn't sexy or charismatic much in this role.

But as for his character well for the most part this is the sort of man that women tend to fall in love with (and you hear a couple of people say how hot he is in one scene of the film) and that these handsome and charismatic types who say all the right things and make all the right moves on women and because of those traits they fall madly in love with them only to have it go horribly wrong because of the man cleverly hiding their dark side.

Now I know for sure that this isn't always the case but I couldn't help but think of this when coming out of the film.

- The second is that the sex scenes are boring to watch because of their near complete lack of sexiness, it more resembles torture and seeing Johnson go through this made me feel very uncomfortable after a while and again I know this was the key appeal of this story and the book series its based on but I wish director Sam Johnson who overall does the best job she can with this material had found a way to tone down the discomfort.

And so that was 50 Shades of Grey a film that I just cannot recommend at all to anyone, go and see Kingsman the Secret Service instead, .5 out of 5.