An average movie

At some point, I noticed that my step-daughter had bought the 'Fifty Shades of Grey' book. It was probably because of the hype and I’m pretty sure she never read the whole thing. Anyway, in spite of its lame reputation, or maybe actually because of its lame reputation, I thought I might as well read the damned thing and guess what? I thought it was not so bad. Sure, it was definitely not a masterpiece whatsoever but I thought it was an easy read. Well, this week-end, I mentioned to my wife that this movie was available on HBO and, to my surprise, she was actually eager to check it out. I guess that, pretty much like my step-daughter, she was above all curious because of all the hype concerning those books. Well, even though this movie is currently running for the title of ‘Worst Movie of the Year’, I thought it could have been so much worse. I mean, sure, pretty much like the book, it gave a really poor idea about what a BDSM relationship must look like, violating some of the most basic rules involved in this kind of relationships but, at least, it was a movie about some characters exploring the boundaries of their sexuality which is something so rare. Furthermore, I was actually pleased with Dakota Johnson who gave a solid performance as Anastasia Steele. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same about Jamie Dornan who was completely miscast to play Christian Grey. I mean, sure, he was not really ugly but he was never intense enough for this character. Anyway, I was actually surprised about how soft the whole thing was after all. Apparently, they toned down the material to make sure that they got a R rating and, as result, it never felt like I was watching a really hardcore SM relationship. The lack of full-frontal nudity was also rather pathetic and gave as well the feeling that you were actually watching a fake transgressive feature produced for the average housewife. Finally, and that was also the biggest problem with the book, it remains difficult to really care about their relationship. I mean, their whole conflict is in fact completely bogus. Basically, they are both young, good looking and the guy is filthy rich and loves kinky sex so I never really understood what was their problem. I mean, it is clear that Anastasia actually loves the wild sex (who wouldn’t?) so they could in fact easily make some compromise between what she wants and what he wants and live happily ever after. Anyway, to conclude, pretty much like the book, half of it was pretty much garbage, half of it was actually quite interesting but I still don’t think it is really worth a look.