Even though Im posting this on Sunday, I'm writing this post on Friday night as I've not long got home after watching Fifty Shades of Grey! The film was actually pretty good and was nowhere near as bad as the reviews it is receiving! I was really looking forward to seeing it and in all honestly, it was much better than I expected. I haven't read the book since it first came out so I couldn't remember most of the finer details so I wasn't really disappointed if certain scenes weren't included because I couldn't remember them!
Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan were very satisfying leads in my opinion. I think I preferred Jamie as Paul Spector in The Fall but his charm and charisma made a good Christian Grey. I was especially impressed with Dakota's portrayal of Anastasia Steele as I was a bit unsure when she was cast. I feel a little bad for doubting her as she was perfectly awkward and naive like the book version of Ana. She was actually very funny and had quite a few good one liners. I especially liked when she drunk dialled Christian towards the start of the movie. The film was actually pretty funny in general which was a surprise and it made it quite light hearted. Not every joke made was funny though and there was a few that made me cringe a bit.
In terms of the supporting cast, Eloise Mumford was amazing as Ana's best friend Kate Kavanagh. I pictured Kate as Blake Lively when I read the books but Eloise was perfect casting in my opinion. She captured Kate just like how I thought she would be. I was pretty disappointed with Elliot if I'm totally honest as I pictured him completely differently but Luke Grimes was good though. Rita Ora's appearance was also very underwhelming, you probably will have heard that she only had about 3-4 lines! Mia was a great character in the books as well.
There was many scenes that I liked in the film but I particularly loved how the email aspect from the books was included as I would say that was one of my favourite parts of the novels. I also loved how Christian and Ana actually text each other, I always thought the constant emailing for general conversation was a little outdated!
The cinematography was probably one of the best parts of the film for me as there were many beautiful shots. I particularly loved the scene where Ana and Christian discuss the contract. That was not only witty but incredibly well shot across the long dining table. Christian's apartment also looked amazing and so close to how I imagined (I always thought it was kind of looked like Iron Man's...).
Asides from casting, there were a few other issues for me. The film started off very rom-commy which I really liked as it was refreshing compared to the book. I felt though that during the second half or so of the film I started to get a little bored. The beginning was very fast paced and compelling as it established Ana and Christian's relationship but I felt it got a bit repetitive towards the end.
I also noticed that when Kate was using her Macbook to Google images of Christian, the Apple wasn't lit up so it wasn't even turned on! I found this even more noticeable when she passed the laptop to Ana to look at one of the images and you could ever so slightly see the black screen. Later on in the film, Ana's Macbook light was off too and she was typing on hers! Christian's Macbook however was lit up when he was using it so it wasn't completely all bad. I couldn't believe no one noticed something that was so obvious to me.
Most importantly, I think most people were interested in how the books' many intimate scenes would be portrayed. In my opinion, they as tasteful as they possibly could of been and they were not too much. I wouldn't say it was any more graphic than what you currently see on TV but I will let you make your own opinions on that one!
Did you see go see Fifty Shades of Grey this weekend? If so, what did you think of it? I would love to hear from you in the comments or on social media!
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