50 Shades of Grey
Director: Sam Taylor-Johnson
Starring: Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dorman
111 mins; Class 18;
KRS Releasing Ltd

I had not read E.L. James titillating gazillion-selling book 50 Shades of Grey.

Any fleeting curiosity I may have felt during the hype was dashed by the many poor reviews it received. Poor reviews didn’t prevent it from becoming a publishing phenomenon, however, with the book dominating conversations at home, on TV and the internet for months on end.

The debates abated eventually, although they are surely to be fired up once more with the highly-anticipated release of the film version.

We all know the bare bones of the plot: student Anastasia Steele (Dakota Johnson), interviews billionaire businessman Christian Grey (Jamie Dornan) for her university magazine.

Despite the obvious differences between the two - him suave and sophisticated, her naïve and awkward - there is an instant connection.

But, as Anastasia soon discovers, Christian is a man fixated on the erotic practices of dominance and submission.

Having not read the book, I did not know what to expect from the film. Was it going to be a mere sexploitation movie made simply to titillate audiences in the same way as it did readers? Was it sexist of me to wonder whether, given it was directed by a woman (Sam Taylor-Johnson), she would overcome the salaciousness to tell the story of two disparate people in an unorthodox relationship?

It is actually a bit more of the latter, as Taylor-Johnson is more concerned with the people in the relationship than the nature of said relationship. On the other hand, the screenplay by Kelly Marcel has little interest in the psychological aspects of its characters and never lets us truly get under their skin.

This is a pity, for the film’s greatest assets are its protagonists who come across as authentic people, thanks to fine performances by its leads.

Northern Irish actor and model Dornan, who made such a chilling impression as serial killer in BBC TV’s hugely successful crime drama The Fall, is thoroughly sympathetic as the mysterious Grey, displaying more shades of nuance and feeling than the script allows.

Johnson is a revelation as Anastasia. She imbues the character with intelligence, despite her wide-eyed innocence and initial reservations, and very much holds her own against Grey’s constant and unrelenting coercion.

There is a palpable chemistry between the two ,leading to a genuine emotional connection and the subtle cat-and-mouse game they play with one another, which is often imbued with droll humour, is definitely more involving than the sexual shenanigans on display.

Speaking of which, therein lies the rub. The rather timid treatment of its subject matter comes as something of a surprise, especially given the brouhaha surrounding the explicit nature of the book. The scenes of domination and bondage, when they finally appear, are all quite tastefully, if rather coyly, done, with little nudity that shouldn’t offend the prudes in the audience (if any). Christian is always the perfect gentleman, while Anastasia is rarely shown to be in any danger, notwithstanding the use of whips and ropes and talk of ‘safe words’. That these scenes are underscored by power ballads while suffused by soft lighting, paints the relationship as romantic, in a twisted way, rather than a tortuous, abusive one. Clearly Christian’s memo that he is “not a hearts and flowers kind of guy” was lost in the mail...

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