Review Roundup: FIFTY SHADES OF GREY, Hitting Theaters on Valentine's Day
By: Review Roundups Feb. 10, 2015
Universal Pictures' FIFTY SHADES OF GREY, the hotly anticipated film adaptation of E.L. James' bestselling book, hits theaters on Valentine's Day, and the reviews have started rolling in!
Let's see what the critics had to say...
Lindsey Bahr, Associated Press: With all that irresistible anticipation, how could a movie about BDSM be so run of the mill? The short answer: fear and money. It's one thing to read about the bondage-enabled sexual awakening of a virgin. It's quite another to see it depicted on screen. Director Sam Taylor-Johnson had an impossible mission on her hands to meld the tawdry with the conventional. It's like trying to mash up the sensibilities of Lars von Trier with Nancy Meyers to create an end product that will be appealing on a mass scale. In trying to please everyone, though, "Fifty Shades of Grey" has stripped away the fun and settled on palatable. There have been perfume commercials with more depth and story arc.
Sheri Linden, The Hollywood Reporter: ...the first in a planned trilogy of movies will stoke the ardor of James' fans, entice curious newbies, and in every way live up to the "phenomenon" hype...Dornan seems lacking as the stormy-eyed Grey...But his performance quickly grows fascinating in its containment, revealing a disturbingly more animated side of Grey when he next encounters Ana...It's a slow build to the smutty bits, and one that's disappointingly devoid of tension. Even so, the movie is, by definition, a stronger proposition than the book because it strips away the oodles of cringe-inducing descriptions and internal monologue that tip the text heavily toward self-parody...Johnson is captivating...With a loose-limbed naturalness, she conveys naiveté, intellectual curiosity and romantic yearning, and shows the unassuming Ana's newfound thrill at being seen...Best of all, Johnson and her director embrace Ana's paradox: She snickers at Christian's predilections, but they also turn her on.
Justin Chang, Variety: If the problem with too many literary adaptations is a failure to capture the author's voice, then that shortcoming turns out to be the single greatest virtue of "Fifty Shades of Grey"...director Sam Taylor-Johnson and screenwriter Kelly Marcel have brought out a welcome element of cheeky, knowing humor that gradually recedes as the action plunges into darker, kinkier territory. Glossy, well cast, and a consistent hoot until it becomes a serious drag, this neo-"9½ Weeks" is above all a slick exercise in carefully brand-managed titillation -- edgier than most grown-up studio fare, but otherwise a fairly mild provocation in this porn-saturated day and age.
Claudia Puig, USA Today: Sitting through the turgid and tedious S&M melodrama that is Fifty Shades of Grey may feel like its own form of torture. Those looking for hot, kinky sex will be disappointed. Fewer than 15 of the movie's 125 minutes feature sex scenes. Discussion of contracts and objections over line items outweigh erotica. Even the graphic nudity grows numbing...The dialogue, based on E.L. James' best-selling book, is laughable, the pacing is sluggish and the performances are one-note. Perhaps worst of all, chemistry is nil between Jamie Dornan as billionaire Christian Grey and Dakota Johnson as curious college student Anastasia Steele.
Rafer Guzman, Newsday: Despite all the waist-down action, though, the movie has no pulse. What's more, it's dead from the neck up. The blame begins with James' artless, witless source material..."Fifty Shades of Grey" pitches itself as a story of sexual awakening and dark desires. Grey, incapable of intimacy, wants Anastasia to sign a contract submitting to various thrashings; Anastasia, however, wants to cuddle, too. This emotional tug-of-war sometimes involves literal rope, but the argument quickly grows tiresome (Kelly Marcel wrote the screenplay, a thankless job). Just as boring are the sex scenes, which -- let's face it -- are the only reason you might show up. Director Sam Taylor-Johnson brings a strangely dry and sanitized feel to the bedroom collisions (blue lighting, pop songs), which never get much kinkier than ice cubes and peacock feathers.
David Ehrlich, Time Out NY: A watered-down adaptation that's embarrassed to be wet, Fifty Shades of Grey is a sex-positive but hopelessly soft-core erotic drama that fails to be even a fraction as titillating as the E.L. James books that inspired it. And yet, that's exactly why it works...Sam Taylor-Johnson's film becomes fascinating for the finesse with which she navigates the prudishness forced upon it. The director is capable of pivoting from romantic comedy to erotic drama at the whack of a flogger, her dexterity allowing the tepid sex scenes to be framed by a surprisingly sensitive story of self-discovery. Substituting heartache for handcuffs, Fifty Shades is the rare studio romance in which the characters actually try to understand one another. As this is the first installment of an epic trilogy, how much there is beneath the surface remains to be seen, but Taylor-Johnson seems genuinely interested in finding out.
Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: So credit goes to director Sam Taylor-Johnson and her screenwriter, Kelly Marcel, who've stripped the first book of its biggest flaws, while still honoring its essence. And lead Dakota Johnson makes for an ideal heroine, though -- as doubters feared -- her chemistry with costar Jamie Dornan doesn't always sizzle...Both actors do strip down, and the book's centerpiece scenes are faithfully recreated. But anyone hoping the movie would really push the S&M envelope may find Christian's tastefully shot toy room a little... vanilla...Dornan, unfortunately, never evolves into anything more than a pretty face. But Johnson is a true find: She's so committed, she makes Ana's every discovery -- in or out of the bedroom -- convincing.
Sara Stewart, New York Post: Gone are the truly dreadful aspects of the book, and the biggest surprise may be that Anastasia Steele (Dakota Johnson) and Grey have developed senses of humor. Still, the film never pretends to be other than what it really is: soft-core porn for the ladies, diluted with an "R" rating...The inscrutable Dornan's a pretty good fit for control-freaky Christian, though he can't keep that Irish lilt out of his lines. Johnson, for her part, makes Anastasia less annoying than the golly-gee-whiz hayseed she is in the book. Her character, round-shouldered in her schlumpy cardigans, has some backbone...There's been some buzz about the lack of chemistry between Johnson and Dornan, but most of their trysts have a decent amount of heat...Director Sam Taylor-Johnson and screenwriter Kelly Marcel have also done away with the cringeworthy parts of the novel...There's humor in some unexpected moments...Mr. Grey will see you now -- and I'm betting record-breaking numbers of female moviegoers are ready to be seen.
Richard Lawson, Vanity Fair: What a fun, sexy time young Anastasia Steele is having in Fifty Shades of Grey, director Sam Taylor-Johnson's surprisingly winning adaptation of the runaway Twilight-fan-fiction-turned-bondage-fantasy novel. Anastasia, or Ana, is about to graduate from college when she meets a seriously handsome young billionaire with whom she shares an immediate, intense connection...The two are polite and witty and even cute with one another, a genuine romance bubbling up underneath all the smooth seduction. The movie has a refreshing, friendly, youthful energy; it's exciting, and excited, and, for the most part, pretty sex-positive.
Eric Kohn, IndieWire: Lifted from the first of E.L. James' wildly successful novels, which started as a form of "Twilight" fan fiction, the movie plays strictly by the book -- which is hardly a compliment. Directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson from Kelly Marcel's screenplay, the considerable talent behind the camera and a modicum of considerable performances yield a few undeniable guilty pleasures, but most viewers will be seeking a safe word to escape this two-hour-plus mess of half-baked excess.
Inkoo Kang, TheWrap: The stylish and mostly satisfying film adaptation by director Sam Taylor-Johnson...Starring a vivacious Dakota Johnson and a game Jamie Dornan...is a skillful distillation of James' first book that captures the heady exhilaration of being someone's fixation...Once Ana and Christian get together, there's not much more to the story: it's mostly PWP, or "porn without plot," as it's called in fan-fiction jargon...And yet screenwriter Kelly Marcel smartly contrasts Ana's erotic submission in Christian's gorgeous sex dungeon with her ongoing resistance to actually signing the contract, a move that leaves open the possibility for her to negotiate a more open and emotionally vulnerable relationship with her new bedroom partner than what he initially imagined..."Fifty Shades" doesn't exactly leave me panting for more, but it certainly knows how to keep a girl happy during its running time.
Josh Dickey, Mashable: Here's a criticism of Fifty Shades of Grey you probably weren't expecting: There's not nearly enough sex in it...That's a shame, because Marcel performed nothing short of a miracle here, turning hapless, unreadable fan-fiction rubbish that somehow caught fire into a capable, slow-building script. By boldly stripping away the book's iconic but most preposterous elements...the film ultimately holds up as a stylish and simmering power struggle...Johnson plays Anastasia with a whispery, retreating awkwardness -- she's too poised to be the knock-kneed schoolgirl of the book, but it works -- and when push comes to shove, she's no wallflower. There's actually an interesting character in that dichotomy, and again the credit goes to Marcel and director Sam Taylor-Johnson, who give Johnson just enough flashes of defiance and confidence to create friction against Dornan's unrelenting Christian Grey.
Justin Craig, Fox News: The only reason Christian Grey has become a recent icon in popular fiction -- albeit a trashy one -- is because he is filthy rich. Being a wealthy, debonair playboy has overshadowed being a manipulating sexual predator and has inexplicably made a seemingly quiet, sexually repressed audience swoon...Just how sexually explicit is "Fifty Shades of Grey?" It's mild. Sure there's plenty of nudity, but more salacious material is shown every day on cable. It's not even close to late-night Cinemax. You'll find more disturbing images in "Saw" or "Game of Thrones." The mediocre plot, bland characters and tepid tone don't do any favors. Director Sam Taylor-Johnson treats the movie as serious as a cadaver, which is truly a major disappointment. The screenplay by Kelly Marcel, based on E.L. James' novel, is empty of message or meaning. Those faults alone make "Fifty Shades" a boring, pointless film.
Jordan Hoffman, The Guardian: Grey is adequately played by Jamie Dornan, but he's essentially a cipher for his thousand dollar watches, crisp ties and a fleet of Audis...But the real find in Sam Taylor-Johnson's better-than-it-has-to-be adaptation of the risibly written and ludicrously popular softcore novel is Dakota Johnson. Reminiscent of only her mother Melanie Griffith's best characteristics, Johnson's Ana squeezes believability out of one of the more silly romantic entanglements in recent popular culture...this big screen adaptation still manages to be about people, and even a little bit sweet...The sex scenes in Fifty Shades of Grey are numerous, lengthy and frank, but they aren't smutty...for the movies, it's nothing too weird.
Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: The movie Fifty Shades of Grey is considerably better written than the book. It is also sort of classy-looking, in a generic, TV-ad-for-bath-oil way...The production is also oddly sedate...But even more frustrating to voyeurs, nobody sweats, nobody strains, nobody loses control or even fakes losing control by simulating an org*sm...On the other hand...Johnson...is particularly lovely, conveying a welcome flash of wit and self-awareness missing from the book...Readers also know the thrill of secret arousal -- the power to privately reread the scenes that get their motor running (or helicopter flying) and skip the dull pages. This perfectly normal way of consuming erotica suggests that the movie Fifty Shades of Grey will work better as home entertainment... B-
Gregory Wakeman, CinemaBlend: Unfortunately, rather than living up to this furor, Fifty Shades Of Grey, the film, is a meandering mess that is shackled by its trashy and corny roots and is an early contender for the worst film of the year...Done well, Fifty Shades Of Grey could have introduced a mainstream audience to the intriguing world of BDSM...Instead Fifty Shades Of Grey never verges on the complex, and as a result is both painfully lame and tediously simplistic...The problem, ultimately, is that when Fifty Shades Of Grey's long-touted sex scenes do arrive, they fail to add to the film at all. In fact, they just come across as gratuitous. And when coupled with the film's trashy plot, shoddy characterization and lack of style, this basically turns Fifty Shades Of Grey into the most expensive, and scantily-clad, soap-opera episode ever.
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