This film is based on the international best-selling book 'Fifty Shades of Grey' by author E.L James. (Note that I haven't read the book so this is just a regular film blog to me.)
If you've been living under a rock you might not know that the book is famous for some pretty raunchy s&m sex between main characters Christian Grey (young rich 'business man') and Anastasia Steele (young innocent English Lit student).
In the film adaptation we have Jamie Dornan as Christian and Dakota Johnson as Anastasia. Anastasia meets Christian and he gradually tries to compel her get involved in his s&m world. Both give an ok performance in a film I found to be total rubbish.
Honestly, it was just tedious. Some of the dialogue, I gather taken directly from the book, just made me wonder how on earth it was so popular.
For example (FRUITY LANGUAGE WARNING):
Anastasia to Christian: "Are you going to make love to me now?"
Christian: "I don't make love, I fuck. Hard."
I actually heard someone in the cinema mutter "Oh please" at that bit.
OK that was me who muttered that.
The film is attracting some controversy as to whether it glamorizes domestic violence. Obviously that's not something that can be examined within the confines of my short 'cut to the chase' style, but if you do want to read more about that, try this article.
But quite apart from any of that, I think this is just a really ordinary film and I'd be disappointed if I'd paid $20 to see it. If you're looking for titillation it would be way too soft for you (it's not even R-rated, it's MA 15+) and if you're not into that you'd probably have no interest in the film anyway.
Fairfax film critic Phillipa Hawker didn't hate it as much as me, for the record. Here's her 3 star review if you're interested in that perspective and more on the story. The Today Show's Lisa Wilkinson hated it and gave it a big ol' serve on her show, which you can watch here.
Trailer here.