I was very pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this movie. I was not expecting much with Jaime or Dakota based on the trailers and interviews because it looked like they had absolutely no chemistry. I was also worried that they had tamed Ana because of the trailer’s. Within the first 15 minutes I realized that they had brilliant on-screen chemistry and they vamped up Ana’s sass for the movie and I loved every second! A lot of things changed. And I mean a lot. But not in such a way that we lost who the characters were or changed what the story was about (or how it generally happened). I can see why EL James got mad just because they did change a lot. Because of her presence though, it seemed that they were able to keep enough of the original novel, including original dialogue that made the story what it was.
The chemistry. At first, it was just like the trailer. And then pretty much as soon as she fell into his office and they started their conversation I felt it and I went “okay, now I see what the casting director’s saw.” I thought they both looked like too much of softies to play either character, but as the movie progressed, Jaime really brought Christian in his darkness and his levity, to the big screen and really made him real. Same with Dakota. I really was terrified of this girl because they chose probably the worst takes in their archives to use for the trailer, but very soon after the movie started I knew she had that smart mouth that Christian and readers fell in love with.
Kate’s involvement in the relationship was well executed because in the book it seemed very sudden. Like she was on team-Christian and then in the last 100 pages or so she suddenly hated him like night-and-day with not imbetween.
The way they executed the boat-house scene was very interesting. They changed it pretty much 360 and made it wholly different from the book. And though it sort of bothered me how they did that, I enjoyed it as a movie-goer.
Also the way they executed the contract-negotiation scene was very different but I loved it!
The sex scenes were pretty graphic but not quite as much as I was expecting. I think they played it safe just to make sure they could get an R-rating. I heard a rumor that they will release the NC-17 version either in a couple of weeks or with the DVD but I don’t know.
How they got Christian to spill the beans on his past. This actually angered me. It was like they wanted the audience to know but didn’t want Christian to actually tell Ana the truth. I loved how all of their little arguments were handled when Ana would pester him about the touching thing, and how we could see Christian’s barely reigned in anger at being challenged and dealing with these new feelings. He just tells her everything while she’s sleeping and while I can see that being a good way to handle it (kind of) it doesn’t help Ana any and so doesn’t do anything for the story. That was one thing that needed to happen as it did in the book. They probably just wanted to take out another sex scene and so got rid of it.
The. Ending. It was changed quite a bit, but the “how hard can it get” part was intense. Very. Intense. Starting with the argument where he shouts “it’s what I am!” all the way to the end of the movie was just… spectacular. And what I loved about it was the incredible pain in Jaime’s eyes. He was fighting with his nature, his fetish, what he has known to bring him comfort and sexual satisfaction. He now feels it is wrong and feels torn about it for the first time and all of that is communicated in his eyes as he does this. That scene gave me goose-bumps because the chemistry as well as the raw emotion on their faces MADE this scene and made it so important, so heavy that it seriously gave me chills. Everything after that was just a long wave of chills.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the movie and think that anyone that liked the book will definitely love the movie!
5/5 stars
<3 The Reviewer
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