By Jack Howorth
Arts Editor
Sam Taylor-Johnson’s film adaptation of E.L. James’ erotic novel, “50 Shades of Grey,” is anything but erotic and fails miserably as a romantic film. The two lead actors have terrible on-screen chemistry and are undeveloped, leaving a supposed romantic story with a relationship that is extremely difficult to believe. On top of the character flaws, the stale dialogue and flat plot make the film hard to watch.
“50 Shades of Grey” follows the curiosity of a literature student, Anastasia Steele (Dakota Johnson), as she interviews and becomes romantically involved with the successful and intimidating entrepreneur Christian Grey (Jamie Dornan).
However, as their involvement with one another progresses, she learns about Grey’s perverse sexual tendencies, and she quickly realizes that while she may want a real relationship, Mr. Grey’s intentions differ wildly.
The film’s selling point is its sex appeal and intrigue; however, even these are lack- ing. The sex does not even start until 40 minutes in, and even then it fails to capture the eroticism of the novel it was based upon, with the majority of the sex scenes limited to shots of Dornan’s posterior and Johnson’s legs.
Additionally, the sex scenes seem to normalize violent sexual practices that de- mean women. This is a huge point of controversy, because while many defend the film, the glamorization of ignoring consent paints a negative image of females in society and is blatantly sexist.
Adding to the film’s list of failures, both of the lead actors do an overall poor job. There is no emotion in their performances,
and their characters are shallow, with little to no development.
Secondly, the lack of chemistry between the leads prevents the audience from be- coming invested in the central romance. The only redeemable acting is that Johnson succeeds at portraying an innocent character, making the story seem a little bit more believable. However, this one success is nowhere near compensation for the numerous acting failures.
One of the biggest flaws of “50 Shades of Grey” is the sub-par screenwriting. Not only is the plot weak, but more importantly, the dialogue is laughable at best. The film also consists of emotionless exchanges between Dornan and Johnson that, once again, make the relationship hard to believe. Throughout the film they also make
ridiculous remarks that ruin the serious tone and make some moments seem like a poorly written comedy, as well as making the characters seem more ridiculous and less believable.
While the book is known as an edgy erotic novel that is titillating to read, the film “50 Shades of Grey” is a disaster that is difficult to watch. It fails on every regard, does not live up to the “sexpectations” of the novel’s followers and manages to have shallow characters with weak acting.
There is no grey area when trying to evaluate the quality of this film; it is a failure that lures audiences in with its sup- posed controversy before hitting them atop the head with an overall terrible film.
“50 Shades of Grey” is rated R and is available in theaters nationwide.
Leave a Reply