Review of “Fifty Shades of Grey”

*  * C

I found the first half of Fifty Shades enjoyable as Anastasia (newcomer Dakota Johnson) gets to know billionaire Christian Grey (Jamie Dornan, who went on to play Paul Spector in the excellent Irish series “The Fall”), and slowly finds out that he has unusual sexual appetites. The second half of the film, where she learns how sick he is (as he puts it, fifty shades of f***ed up), has plenty of nudity and sex, tastefully filmed, but is otherwise a bit empty. I found it less interesting than the first half, particularly due to the non-erotic (to my tastes) nature of the sex scenes. Then, for the coup de grace, the film just stops. Yes, they are making sequels, and the book may have ended this way, but I found it very unsatisfying. What started out as a B grade romance turned into a C grade drama, and then fizzled with a D grade ending. I’m not sure I will watch the sequel.

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