I just have to say, "Wow." The movie stayed true to the book in ways I didn't imagine possible. Their romance was just as creepy and awkward in the movie as it was in the book. The stupid stares that make sense in a paranormal teen romance but don't make sense between two "real" adults who've know each other for a grand total for 25 minutes are still there.
All the endless contradictions are still there. Like offering to have sex with a guy you just met before the first meal together and then mentioning how you're a 22 year old virgin (cause most people who manage to stay a virgin for 22 years offer to bang people they just met). Declaring you don't make love, you fuck, then gently and lovingly deflowering someone 15 minutes after claiming this so they'll be more open to doing what you want...yep, all the things that made me go WTF in the book are still there.
They kept the email and contract chapters which I thought was impossible for a movie. I mean the actual contract is in the book. I didn't think they'd possibly find a way to get that in the movie, but they did. And they did a really good job of getting it in there.
And the movie is just as insulting to anyone into BDSM as the book is. It's like after a 30 minute Google search James decided to substitute being into BDSM with vampirism and went from there. This movie is like the blackface of BDSM.
I thought the actor for Christian Grey might try to soften his character, after all, it's a romance, and you want likeable characters in a romance. But nope, he played him just as unlikeable as the books portray him. Excellent acting.
The only thing they lessened was the abuse factor. They made it seem like she liked the BDSM aspects instead of simply enduring them to please him in hopes of keeping him long enough to change him. Which made me wonder how they were going to end it, because his "need" to hurt her (tries not to puke) was their reason for their break up, but the ending ended up seeming perfectly consistent.
This has to be one of the best book to movie translations I've ever seen. Sure it was painful to watch, and I'll never watch it again, but that's only because of how true they stayed to their source material.
All the endless contradictions are still there. Like offering to have sex with a guy you just met before the first meal together and then mentioning how you're a 22 year old virgin (cause most people who manage to stay a virgin for 22 years offer to bang people they just met). Declaring you don't make love, you fuck, then gently and lovingly deflowering someone 15 minutes after claiming this so they'll be more open to doing what you want...yep, all the things that made me go WTF in the book are still there.
They kept the email and contract chapters which I thought was impossible for a movie. I mean the actual contract is in the book. I didn't think they'd possibly find a way to get that in the movie, but they did. And they did a really good job of getting it in there.
And the movie is just as insulting to anyone into BDSM as the book is. It's like after a 30 minute Google search James decided to substitute being into BDSM with vampirism and went from there. This movie is like the blackface of BDSM.
I thought the actor for Christian Grey might try to soften his character, after all, it's a romance, and you want likeable characters in a romance. But nope, he played him just as unlikeable as the books portray him. Excellent acting.
The only thing they lessened was the abuse factor. They made it seem like she liked the BDSM aspects instead of simply enduring them to please him in hopes of keeping him long enough to change him. Which made me wonder how they were going to end it, because his "need" to hurt her (tries not to puke) was their reason for their break up, but the ending ended up seeming perfectly consistent.
This has to be one of the best book to movie translations I've ever seen. Sure it was painful to watch, and I'll never watch it again, but that's only because of how true they stayed to their source material.
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