Three years ago I read all the trilogy and I loved it, especially the first book.
I found myself in a lot of the features of the main female character; maybe that's why I liked it so much, because I saw myself in her.
So, I was really interested how the director will transposed the book into a film.
I just was a little bit concerned about the casting of Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele because at the beginning it was chosen Charlie Hunnam and yes, he's extremely hot, great body but he hadn't the Grey's appeal.
Then, Charlie dropped the part and it was chosen Jamie Dornan. My Jamie! I was already a fan of him since I saw him as Graham, the Huntsman in Once Upon a Time. Then I followed him with the irish drama The Fall. He is such a great actor, in fact in The Fall he masterly played the part of a serial killer and he also made him be loved and appreciated, which is weird for a serial killer! Who would love a serial killer like Paul Spector? Well.. me!
For Anastasia it was chosen Dakota Johnson, who I didn't really know, well.. I didn't know her at all, except from the fact that she was the daughter of Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson.
I was so much curious to see how they would give life to these two great and complex characters.
At the beginnig I didn't have so much expectations but it was nice! Jamie was beyond perfect and I was pleasantly surprised about Dakota's performance.
The film was funny, extremely sensual and sexy but also tragic at the end. In my opinion if you didn't read the book you can't fully understand how are developing the facts of the story. Why Anastasia is going to interview Mr Grey on behalf of her friend? After the interview was she thinking about him?
To me the main part missing in the film is the interior Ana and her thoughts. They should have include a voice-over of what she was thinking.
To me the film was nice and it wasn't too "hard", but I read a lot of reviews that said the opposite. There are a lot of people that loved the film others hated it! A lot of people think that the books and also the film encourage and support domestic violence, submission and abuse of women. In my opinion is just a story written with some particular characters, that's why it became so famous; because it's new and it's not the classic romantic love story. It's something more. In my opinion the story doesn't encourage violence but it shows that a woman if she's not comfortable with a man or a story can freely walk away like Ana does at the end.
Ana was not forced to do anything, because she decided to get involved with a man like Christian and no one pushed her into his arms except herself.
Even if I wouldn't like a love story like this, I think that I would have act exactly like Anastasia; and I think that a lot of women would have act like her, because there's nothing wrong in being fascinated by a man like him (I know, I might sound a little bit superficial but who would resist to a young, rich and handsome man like him? I would literally fall for him immediately) and there's nothing wrong in trying something new knowing that you can leave when you want.
At the end I believe that Sam Taylor-Johnson, the director, made a great job in transposing the book into a film. Due to the amount of sex in the book maybe I would have wanted a little bit more of that and a little bit of enchantment for the first time of Anastasia, but for the rest I think it was nice.
The soundtrack of Fifty Shades of Grey is amazing! Starting from Annie Lennox with I put a spell on you, through Earned it by The Weeknd, passing to Love me like you do by Ellie Goulding, finishing with Haunted and the new remix of the Queen, Beyoncè.
Talk to you soon
Carol
