ABOVE: Watch the trailer for Fifty Shades of Grey.
TORONTO — The highly anticipated big screen adaptation of E.L. James’ 2011 erotic novel Fifty Shades of Grey opens Friday (late Thursday in some markets).
Directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson (Nowhere Boy) and starring Jamie Dornan as Christian Grey and Dakota Johnson as Anastasia Steele, it was filmed in Vancouver from December 2013 to last February (plus some reshoots in October).
Fifty Shades is expected to dominate the weekend box office as fans of the book flock to cinemas. Was the movie worth the wait? Were Dornan and Johnson good choices to play the lead roles? And, more importantly, how much sex is there?
Here’s a look at some of the early reviews.
According to UK newspaper The Sun, there is no sex in Fifty Shades of Grey for the first 40 minutes — and then only 11 minutes of action in the rest of the movie.
But, “they make every one of those 11 minutes count with boobs, bums and even a glimmer of Jamie’s manhood making it on to the silver screen.”
(Dornan has previously said his “manhood” does not appear on camera.)
“We may have all been curious going in,” wrote Lindsey Bahr of The Associated Press, “but by the time the credits roll, there’s another question that springs to mind: Is that all there is?”
She added: “In trying to please everyone, Fifty Shades of Grey has stripped away the fun and settled on palatable. There have been perfume commercials with more depth and story arc.”
Bahr called there is “decent” chemistry between Dornan and Johnson “even if they do seem to be acting in different movies.”
At The Hollywood Reporter, Sheri Linden noted the book’s explicit sexuality has been toned down in the movie and warned “it’s a slow build to the smutty bits, and one that’s disappointingly devoid of tension.”
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She added: “A few dom-sub contract details and a couple of online photos notwithstanding, the movie maintains an artful restraint even as it talks dirty; the sex scenes suggest more than those of the standard Hollywood drama without quite going there.”
READ MORE: Jamie Dornan opens up about Fifty Shades sex scenes
Elizabeth Weitzman of the New York Daily News said Taylor-Johnson and screenwriter Kelly Marcel have “stripped away the first book of its biggest flaws, while still honouring its essence.”
She noted the chemistry between the two stars “doesn’t always sizzle” but called Johnson “an ideal heroine” and a “convincing” Anastasia.
As for the naughty bits, Weitzman shared: “Both actors do strip down, and the book’s centerpiece scenes are faithfully recreated. But anyone hoping the movie would really push the S&M envelope may find Christian’s tastefully shot toy room a little… vanilla. We see a whip here, a handcuff there, but nothing that would shock even newcomers to the series.”
Still, she said, there is plenty of skin “with just a few full-frontal revelations.”
Indiewire reviewer Eric Kohn suggested most people who watch Fifty Shades “will be seeking a safe word to escape this two-hour-plus mess of half-baked excess.”
While being fairly impressed with Johnson’s work, Kohn found Dornan to be “stilted.”
He wrote: “No amount of polished technical ingredients can salvage a relatively faithful screenplay that — while skimping on some of the more outlandish sex scenes — lifts much of the book’s painfully rudimentary dialogue verbatim.”
Kohn said while there is some skin on screen, the sex “hovers on the verge of soft-core material but only offers fragments.”
Calling it “a watered-down adaptation that’s embarrassed to be wet,” David Ehrlich of Time Out, said Fifty Shades is “a sex-positive but hopelessly soft-core erotic drama that fails to be even a fraction as titillating as the books that inspired it.”
He concluded: “Fifty Shades may not make you come, but you’ll still be glad you went.”
WATCH: Fifty Shades of Grey scene shows Christian Grey buying supplies
Variety reviewer Justin Chang described the movie as “glossy, well cast and a consistent hoot until it becomes a serious drag.”
Chang explained: “By the generally prudish standards of the mainstream, the bedroom action on display manages to be appreciably more explicit than the studio norm while steering clear of anything particularly objectionable.
He noted there are “breasts and buttocks” but only “a fleeting glimpse of johnson.”
Chang enjoyed the film’s production design, “shot against the wintry cityscape of Vancouver (ably standing in for the Pacific Northwest locations).”
At the New York Post, Sara Stewart opined Fifty Shades is steamy and cheesy.
“Gone are the truly dreadful aspects of the book, and the biggest surprise may be that Ana and Christian have developed senses of humour,” she wrote. “Still, the film never pretends to be other than what it really is: soft-core porn for the ladies, diluted with an R rating.”
READ MORE: What the critics are saying about other recent movies
Stewart approved of Dornan (“though he can’t keep that Irish lilt out of his lines) and said Johnson “makes Anastasia less annoying than the golly-gee-whiz hayseed she is in the book.”
Stewart also mentioned the lack of chemistry between the two leads but insisted “most of their trysts have a decent amount of heat.”
Though she’s not a professional film reviewer, the last word on Fifty Shades of Grey goes to Kim Kardashian.
Watch @GlobalJRK talk about Fifty Shades of Grey on Global Toronto’s News at Noon on Feb. 13.
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