{"id":9887,"date":"2015-02-16T18:39:28","date_gmt":"2015-02-16T10:39:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/?p=9887"},"modified":"2026-03-07T06:12:55","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T05:12:55","slug":"best-selling-erotic-author-sophie-morgan-reviews-50-shades-movie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/best-selling-erotic-author-sophie-morgan-reviews-50-shades-movie\/","title":{"rendered":"Best-Selling Erotic Author Sophie Morgan Reviews the 50 Shades Movie"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just in case you\u2019ve been living like a hermit and it\u2019s passed you by, rolling into cinemas this weekend was arguably the most anticipated film of the year (although not in our house – Star Wars and Avengers: Age of Ultron top it, kinksters or not), Fifty Shades of Grey<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Full disclosure, I\u2019m not a fan of the books. As a self-confessed submissive married to my dominant, I read them, but I found the relationship between the two characters worryingly abusive rather than romantic<\/a> \u2013 perpetuating myths that all of us into D\/s are somehow fundamentally broken, as well as glossing over the genuine pleasure subs can get from doing painful, hot, humiliating things, instead implying that from a bottom\u2019s perspective D\/s is to be endured rather than actively enjoyed. I also have a professional interest in all things Grey, having written Diary of a Submissive and No Ordinary Love Stor<\/a>y, promoted by Penguin as the \u2018real life Fifty Shades\u2019 (although we don\u2019t have a red room of pain or interminably long sex contracts).<\/p>\n

All of which meant when I was given the opportunity to review the movie<\/a> for the lovely folk at Volont\u00e9 I had a host of ready-made excuses to see it and was curious to see what it was like, even if my expectations were pretty low.<\/p>\n

\"morgan<\/p>\n

In actual fact, watching Fifty Shades of Grey isn\u2019t a completely masochistic act. If you\u2019re expecting a total turkey this isn\u2019t it, and for my money I actually enjoyed it a lot more than the books \u2013 although admittedly that\u2019s not saying much.<\/p>\n

This is mostly down to Dakota Johnson\u2019s Ana. There\u2019s still lip biting aplenty, but the lack of inner monologue (and thankfully no inner goddess, doing the merengue or otherwise) makes her a lot more sparky and likeable than the dithering wallflower of the book. I\u2019d still question whether someone popping up in your bedroom uninvited clutching a bottle of booze and two glasses is romantic or actually a bit stalkerish \u2013 how does he get in, anyway?<\/em> \u2013 but this Ana is fiery and in places surprisingly funny. The contract negotiation scene actually made me laugh out loud, and I actually think it was written that way on purpose<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Sadly this can\u2019t be said of all the dialogue. One day I\u2019d love to read Patrick Marber\u2019s apparently discarded rewrite of the script, because Kelly Marcel\u2019s version is for the most part cringe-worthy and arguably a great part of the reason why Jamie Dornan struggles so much as our gajillionaire (anti)hero. His Christian is beige, not Grey. Dornan was great \u2013 and incredibly intense – in The Fall so I can\u2019t decide if he was just uncomfortable in the role or purely scuppered by his dialogue, but either way his Christian misses the mark. There\u2019s no real chemistry between him and the much-better Johnson, and if you are at the cinema for lechy fun times then you\u2019re definitely out of luck. Christian Grey seemingly has sex with his trousers on. In fact, barring one brief glimpse of pubes, there\u2019s no real proof he actually has a penis. Maybe that\u2019s why his post-coital piano playing sounds so forlorn.<\/p>\n

Sam Taylor Johnson\u2019s direction is all very swish but fundamentally lacks substance. We get a Charlie Tango montage \u2013 punctuated by the very OTT soundtrack \u2013 and lovingly shot glimpses of the Red Room of Pain (very tidy and minimalist, Mr Grey clearly has a house elf with a non-disclosure agreement) but there are a few symbolic directorial conceits so heavy-handed a student filmmaker would be embarrassed to leave them in. When people are sad, it rains. A lot. At one point Ana is lying in bed crying and the shadow<\/em> of rain runs down the walls she is in such despair. It\u2019s so literal it\u2019s difficult not to laugh.<\/p>\n

\"morgan<\/p>\n

Whatever you think of the source material, the fact is this was a rare opportunity to bring out a mainstream film aimed at women with filthy sex scenes and an unconventional romance at its core, a\u00a0Secretary<\/em>\u00a0for the new millennium if you like. On this Fifty Shades soars sadly past the mark (possibly in a co-piloted glider). The sex scenes are not just brief but also weirdly shot and not hot in the least. Ana getting hit with the belt is rendered in juddery slow motion and gives us \u2013 somewhat disconcertingly \u2013 the closest we get to seeing Christian\u2019s orgasm face (on the basis of what we saw, that\u2019s probably for the best). It\u2019s not in any way alluring. In fact, even if the portrayal of D\/s in the Fifty Shades novels floats your boat (and if it does we may have to have a chat) you\u2019re going to be disappointed. As my husband muttered when we left: \u201cYou moan about the rubbish dialogue in porn films we watch together, but at least the sex in those is hotter than this glorified perfume ad.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sadly, 18 certificate or not, he\u2019s not wrong.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Enjoy 15% off LELO.com<\/a> with code VOLONTE15<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just in case you\u2019ve been living like a hermit and it\u2019s passed you by, rolling into cinemas this weekend was arguably the most anticipated film of the year (although not in our house – Star Wars and Avengers: Age of Ultron top it, kinksters or not), Fifty Shades of Grey. Full disclosure, I\u2019m not a fan of the books. As a self-confessed submissive married to my dominant, I read them, but I found the relationship between the two characters worryingly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":9801,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[647,185],"coauthors":[947],"class_list":["post-9887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sex-tips-advice","tag-50-shades","tag-movie"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n50 Shades of Grey Movie Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"'Diary of a Submissive' author Sophie Morgan offers her 2 cents on the 50 Shades movie\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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