Fifty Shades of Grey Movie

Saturday night Jeananna and I (Heather) saw Fifty Shades of Grey. I’ve been waitng for this movie ever since it was announce for a lot reasons…the most important is because I love Christian Grey. You can find my thoughts on Christian here in my review of the books.

Now for the movie….

Heather: When it was announced that Jaime Dornan would be Christian I have to be honest I knew nothing about him, and had to Google him. This is the first time I’ve seen him act and I have to say that I was really impressed. I thought he nailed the character of Christian Grey perfectly. From his bafflement of his attraction to Ana to the last scene where you could see that he was so broken over what was happening.

What did you think of his portrayal of Christian Jeananna?

Jeananna: He was an unknown to me as well. I didn’t have any preconceived ideas of who I wanted to play Christian but now that I have seen Jamie act the role I cannot imagine there was anyone out there that could nailed it any better! The serious scowls, the smirky smiles and the genuine angst… it all really worked for me.

Heather: In the books I barely tolerated Ana and her inner goddess so I was pleasantly surprised to love Dakota’s portrayal of her. She managed to bring to life one of my absolute least favorite female characters and make her a strong woman. One of the best scenes in the movie is when they are at the negotiating table. She’s one hundred percent in control of that meeting, and she knows it. Better yet, Christian knows it.

I have to say that I was worried about the final scene, because it’s such a pivotal scene in their relationship. The anguish both of them are feeling in those moments is palpable. It’s in those moments when we really see how strong Ana is, and that she isn’t going to settle for half of him.

What did you think of Ana?

Jeananna: I loved the negotiation scene too Heather! When she brushes his hand from her back as they walk down the hall… “this is a business meeting”.  You Go Girl! We see Ana grow and mature so much from the beginning scenes with the interview to the ending scenes and that epic decision she makes. I think Dakota Johnson was an excellent choice.  She made the character of Ana come to life for me.

Heather: Now for the one of the parts I know everyone is curious about…the sex scenes. I’ll admit I was a little trepidatious about them, but I shouldn’t have been. They were done very well and the BDSM scenes were so well done the cinematographer deserves a huge award. I will tell you that I’ve never seen the male lead in any movie before a sex scene open a condom package.

How do you think the sex scenes were portrayed?

Jeananna: They pushed the limits of anything that I have seen in a movie before and by doing that they held true to the book.  We saw Christian lead Ana into the Dominant/submissive relationship and test her boundaries on what she would accept and not accept. For me the scenes were very sensual and erotic. I kept catching myself holding my breath and not wanting to blink in case I missed something – they were WOW and I can’t wait to watch the whole movie again!

Heather: As far as the overall plot/storyline is considered I loved it. Christian is very much a product of his childhood. I’m not saying all men who were abused turn to BDSM, some of them simply like it. But for Christian it is something he only came to because someone took advantage of a tormented young man in need of something. Without going into a lot of details I can tell you those tortured looks from Christian, and the ones from him when Ana touches him are ones I’ve seen all too frequently from one of my sons. As he’s gotten older and we’ve talked about sex and the fact he might be drawn to this sort of sexual lifestyle because it limits the amount of physical contact he will have.

One of the things I really liked was how we got to see things from Christian’s POV as well as Ana’s. I also really liked the email blurbs as one of the things I loved in the books were the emails between them.

What did you think Jeananna?

Jeananna: I personally LOVED it! In addition to being sensual and erotic, I thought it was at times humorous and so very poignant. The actors did a great job of portraying the emotions that I felt while reading the book. I cheered that Ana was strong enough to stand up for herself and I wanted to wrap Christian in a big tight hug and beg him to let Ana love him! It’s definitely not a movie I would want to sit and watch with my MIL – but these are not the kinds of books she reads so we won’t have to worry about that!

And the soundtrack!! LOVE LOVE LOVE the soundtrack!!

Heather: I agree the soundtrack was off the charts amazing. Now for my favorite scene…how to choose, how to choose. There were so many great scenes, but I think my absolute favorite is the contract negotiations. Ana absolutely owned him in that scene.

How about you?

Jeananna: Tough to chose a favorite… so I’ll go for Top 3 –

the interview: showed Ana’s vulnerability and Christian’s intensity and curiosity

the drunk dial scene: showed Ana’s immaturity and humor and Christian’s intensity

the final scene: oh my heart! there were several gasps from people in the audience who had not read the book and were not expecting that ending

Heather: Yes that final scene was absolutely gut wrenching. The emotion on Christian’s face was…I have no words. I wanted to reach into the movie and give him a hug.

There you have it both Jeananna and I loved the movie and can’t wait for the next movie which is slated to come out next year. Based on the numbers coming in from just Thursday-Saturday the movie has grossed almost 90 million dollars so we’re not in jeopardy of them not making them 🙂

Because we loved it so much here’s one of the tracks from the movie….