A Lust For Reading: Movie Review: Fifty Shades of Grey #FiftyShades #OfficialFifty

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Movie Review: Fifty Shades of Grey #FiftyShades #OfficialFifty

On Friday February 6, 2015 I had the honor of being invited to the Fifty Shades First on TODAY screening event. This was not something I could miss so I grabbed my bestie and we hopped the train down to New York City. I will try to get a post up about the event and the fun later, but first I want to get to the part you are truly interested in: the movie.

Sigh. I can honestly say that when the last scene faded to black and the lights came up I was a little bit speechless. I could only utter words like "oh my GOD" and "wow." Repeatedly. There of course has been a lot of hype surrounding this movie. But I cleared my preconceived notions from my head and went into it with zero expectations so I could enjoy it. And enjoy it I did, much more so than I could have ever hoped for.

I will admit that I wasn't a fan of Dakota Johnson for this role. I had no other actress in mind, she just wasn't working for me. Which when you think about it, is utterly ridiculous since I have never seen her in anything before. But those were my initial thoughts and I own them. She didn't just prove me wrong, she completely blew me away. Blew. Me. Away. She was the perfect amount of funny and awkward and pretty and yes even assertive when she needed to be. Dakota really shone in this role and she depicted Anastasia, in my opinion, pretty darn perfectly.

On the flip side, I was all for Jamie Dornan as Christian Grey. To me, he is exactly how I pictured Christian to look while reading the books. And I have seen him enough roles to know he is a competent actor. Plus, he is all kinds of pretty, so there is that too. Dornan pulled off the broody billionaire pretty flawlessly. Even more than that, I felt you could actually see Christian's conflicting emotions displayed on the actor's face. You can feel that inner turmoil that Mr. Grey is going through.

For those who were concerned about Dakota and Jamie's on screen chemistry - there is absolutely nothing to worry about. The love scenes were scorching. I mean hold your breath, clench your thighs hot. There is nudity yet it was all tasteful and not overdone. And yes, while there is a considerate amount of sex in the books and movie, there is also a love story at the core and the writing, directing and acting all captured it brilliantly. There were moments, quite a few in fact, when the entire theater of 1,000 fans was laughing out loud; moments when we were all swooning and moments when we collectively held our breath. They stayed very true to the book, with some of our favorite lines held intact. While there were a few tweaks and changes here and there, I felt they all worked and made the story flow better.

The only negative in this movie for me were Elliot and Mia. Mia wasn't in it enough to get a grasp of how the actress was depicting her, but holy hell she had this awful wig on that looked horrible. Please I hope they nix that for the next movie. As for Elliot, he just gave me a sleazy creepy vibe which I did not get at all while reading the books. I was not a fan. But again, his role was very minor so my opinion could change in the next movie. Both of these character will play bigger roles as the movies go on so we can only wait and see how they do.

As I said, I went in with no expectations but that doesn't mean I wasn't nervous. I really, REALLY wanted to love it. Which I did. I honestly do not think they could have done it any better. It was amazing for me and I already have tickets to see it again on Valentine's Day with the husband.

Marianna's Rating:

In very important news, Fifty Shades Darker and Fifty Shades Freed have already been confirmed as in the works with all cast and crew on board, and I think am even more excited for the next one. Is it 2016 yet?

If you have any questions about the movie, feel free to post them in the comments. Or if you have seen it, I'd love for you to share your thoughts. Just know that I won't give away any spoilers or too many details and any comments containing spoilers will be deleted. I am purposefully being vague in my review because I want you all to experience and enjoy every single second of this movie.