Fifty Shades Of Grey

James’ Fifty Shades Of Grey started out as a Twilight fan-fiction that catapulted to fame after its publication as a novel in 2011. It became such a phenomenon that Universal Pictures bought the license and rights for a film adaptation a year later in early 2012. The studio hired Sam Taylor-Johnson (of the John Lennon biopic Nowhere Boy) to direct a screenplay by Kelly Marcel with E.L. James given creative power over the film’s ending and dialogue choices that ultimately made it into the final version. With more than 100 million copies of the book sold and a $30 million domestic ticket sales on its opening day, does the film live up to its hype?

The story revolves around a young woman named Anastasia Steele (Dakota Johnson) whose chance encounter with a 27-year old, charming successful billionaire named Christian Grey (Jamie Dornan) changes her life forever. Anastasia, or Ana for short, agrees to help out her under the weather roommate Kate Kavanagh (Eloise Mumford) interview Christian for the school’s newspaper, since he is the school’s most revered sponsor. With a list of questions in hand, she makes it through the front desk lobby looking like Anne Hathaway’s Andy Sachs before her makeover in The Devil Wears Prada. Apparently, she doesn’t quite fit in with the rest of the women who works at the “Grey House”, a fact that she alone is well aware of. Armed with a list of dull questions put together by her roommate Kate and only 10 minutes to get them answered, Ana recites each one flustered and lacking confidence until Christian interrupts with “Do you have an actual question, Miss Steele?” It is at this point that Christian decides to take over the interview and asks Ana questions about herself instead. This scene is an early giveaway of Christian’s dominant behavior and hints at his habit of needing to be in control of everything. Soon enough he sees something in her that turns him on and so begins the courtship.

What begins as a typical girl meets rich boy love story soon steers into BDSM territory. Christian Grey has a dark secret and soon reveals to Ana that he is an S&M dominant and wants to take her as his submissive. He keeps a torture chamber that is referred to as his play room where he keeps all his toys, but don’t expect to find an Xbox there. The room plays such an important part in the story that the camera pans in on the doorknob and shows the turning of the key to unlock it almost every time they visit it. It’s as if the film is warning its audience to brace themselves and be prepared for what’s to come once the door opens.

But the fun and game doesn’t just start on a whim. Like dating certain celebrities, Ana is asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement that she will not talk about what goes on between her and Christian. Christian also has a submissive contract drawn up so that their relationship can advance to the next level and it details every toys and kinkiness agreed to by both parties. Of course, Ana does have some qualms about Christian’s deviant sexual taste, and so like any smart women she takes her time to think it over before signing. It is her hesitation and continued delay in signing the submissive contract that ironically buys them more time to get to know each other. The time they spend together gradually binds them tighter to one another than any contract could ever do. They both eventually find it a struggle to be apart.

Dakota Johnson brings a quiet sort of beauty and naivety to the role of Ana. She spends most of the time biting her lips – which is a complete turn on for Christian but may be excessive for the audience – and occasionally giggling when she isn’t giving Christian or the audience her doleful eyes look. Jamie Dornan comes off a little more wooden than as a man who exudes confidence. He recites most of his lines like he’s reading them off a script. But luckily, there appears to be some chemistry between him and Dakota.

The film essentially just moves along like a 2 hour soap opera without any real purpose in its storyline. There are plenty of climaxes throughout the film for our two young lead characters, but unfortunately there isn’t any for the story (the revelation of Christian’s deep dark secret in the end doesn’t really count because it was predictable and not exactly revolutionary). There is a scene ripped off from Pretty Woman where Ana, having just woken from her sleep, finds Christian playing the piano alone in the middle of the night and offers herself to him. The plot is so focused on Christian and Ana that every other characters in this film easily becomes forgettable.

With all that said, Fifty Shades of Grey does have its merits. The best thing about this film is its soundtrack. Annie Lennox’s “I Put A Spell On You” and Beyonce’s “Crazy In Love” and “Haunted” crop up intermittently throughout the film. Each song selection fits its respective scene almost perfectly like Frank Sinatra’s “Witchcraft” that plays in the background to Christian and Ana’s first dance, and Ellie Goulding’s “Love Me Like You Do” that enhances the excitement of the helicopter ride scene when Christian flies Ana to his home in Seattle for the first time, or The Vault’s “One Last Night”, a love theme that accentuates the moment when Christian takes Ana gliding in Georgia in the later part of the film.

Fifty Shades Of Grey has a lot of nudity and sex scenes, but nothing too excessive that would keep it from holding onto its R rating. For a film that’s about raunchy sex and S&M, this film is surprisingly pretty tame. It’s more focused on the love story between Ana and Christian and the emotional conflicts and struggles that they both experience due to the fact that they are essentially two very different people wanting to make the same thing work. This is just the first film in a planned trilogy so here’s hoping that the sequels will spark more fireworks.