Fifty Shades of Grey in the Eyes of the Critics

The highly anticipated adaption of E L James bestseller book has been released worldwide and critics have done their part and given their reviews for the movie.

Fifty Shades of Grey hits theaters today. It is the graphic adaptation of the hit trilogy penned by E L James. The movie is directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson and the screenplay was written by Kelly Marcel. The movie has Jamie Dornan and Dakota Johnson starring in it. 

Dornan plays the elusive billionaire and business extraordinaire Christian Grey. Johnson plays the nervous English literature grad student Anastasia Steele who substitutes for her roommate by conducting an interview with Mr. Grey. The interview sparks the relationship between the two. 

Extraordinary in nature, Grey is into dominance and submissive practices and he wants Anna to enter into a contract. The contract entails that she would be committed to have sexual encounters with him under his terms of sadomasochistic sexual sessions. Their encounters outside the ‘Red Room of Pain’ bring them closer. 

They seem to be attracted towards each other romantically but Grey denies it. At the same time he is possessive of Anna. The emotional vibes turn high and the characters are caught in frenzy while their sexual contact remains technically straightforward and discreet.

The books sold millions of copies worldwide in 52 languages. It became the most anticipated movie to come out in 2015. It has received a lot of attention worldwide. The time has finally come. The movie is released today across the globe. Fans gathered at the red carpet and filed into theaters to see their favorite literary work come to life. Among the audience were the critics who went in with a lot of anticipation. The hype and the expectations based on the publicity of the movie had many wondering how it might actually turn out to be. 

While the audience was definitely in awe of the movie as Collins of the Telegraph reported. They laughed, they signed and even screeched occasionally. He compared the movie’s audience’s response to Mamma Mia’s response. He called Mamma Mia the ‘Fall of Saigon’ of this generation. The response of the audience watching 50 Shades of Grey had a similar response. He called Sam Taylor-Johnson’s adaptation of the movie: funny, self-aware and sexy. It was better than the book in a way since the actors brought the story to realistic terms. Dornan’s Grey was more persuasive. Johnson’s Anna was less gullible and the movie had an ambience of reality compared to the book.

Richard Lawson of Vanity Fair gave his review as well. For him, the movie was different from what he had initially anticipated. He said he went in expecting a “lame, hot-and-bothered fantasy romance”. He found the movie to be witty, humorous and it also depicted modest intelligence about human behavior. According to him, this movie was able to portray human psychology like Twilight was never able to.

Michael Phillips of Chicago Tribune also went in to watch the movie with expectations which he quoted as ‘a camp hoot or a complete, slavishly faithful Submissive of a film, playing opposite the Dominant novel’. He reviewed that the movie was roughly as good as the first Twilight adaptation E L James had written. E L James had started writing when she posted sexual fan fiction about Twilight characters on a fan site.

Alynda Wheat from People’s magazine commended the movie for capturing E L James’ writing. Wheat commented that the movie caught James’ stab at the Twilight fan fiction spot on. The dialogues were overwhelmed with Christian Grey’s agendas. Wheat pointed out that no one will be buying the 50 Shades of Grey tickets for its dialogues. 

Lisa Shwarzbaum from Entertainment Weekly reviewed the movie as written considerably well than the book. She commented that the movie was classy looking. The actors had supple bodies suitable for nakedness. She said that the movie was more about movable parts than acting skills.

A.O. Scott of New York Times preferred the movie above the novel as well. He said that it was a step above the novel in writing. Sam Taylor- Johnson and Kelly Marcel have been commended for their direction and screenplay writing respectively.

Justin Chang from Variety said that the movie did an excellent job at suffocating the narrative. The movie had “cheeky, knowing humor that gradually recedes as the action plunges into darker, kinkier territory” he says. 

Meanwhile, the London Fire Brigade is expecting various 999 emergency calls. The LFB (via BBC) reported that their have been multiple calls where the callers have been caught in some incident including rings or handcuffs. They were probably trying to create their own version of the kinky relationship. LFB fears that the movie will bring a fresh set of calls to the department. The protests against the movie are very much functional. The England based Facebook movement encourages people to donate the $50 they will be spending on the movie ticket to help abused women instead.

Watch below the official trailer of Fifty Shades of Grey.