Fifty Shades of Grey

This film adaptation of the provocative bestselling novel by E.L. James revolves around a man's fetishistic desire for kinky sex and a woman's determination to achieve emotional satisfaction. “I don't do romance. My tastes are very singular,” dapper Seattle billionaire Christian Grey (Jamie Dornan) explains to naïve, virginal Anastasia Steele (Dakota Johnson), who is looking for love and commitment. The pair meet when Anastasia's journalist roommate (Eloise Mumford) gets sick and Anastasia is dispatched to interview Christian for the college paper. She's clumsy and flustered; he's icily formal and arrogant. But they connect, even though he asks her to sign a nondisclosure agreement over their first glass of wine. Curious about what being a sex slave means, Anastasia willingly enters Christian's locked “playroom,” where she learns about dominance and submission, bondage and discipline, sadism and masochism—in sanitized fashion (this is less shocking than 1972's Last Tango in Paris) Even when Anastasia is spanked, blindfolded, and smacked with a riding crop, the soft-core sex scenes are choreographed with stylized sterility. Directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson, Fifty Shades of Grey fails for the most basic of reasons: leads Johnson and Dornan have no erotic chemistry, and the supporting cast, which includes Marcia Gay Harden and Jennifer Ehle, is wasted. Optional. [Note: DVD/Blu-ray extras include a “Behind the Shades” behind-the-scenes featurette (20 min.), “The World of Fifty Shades of Grey: Friends & Family” cast interviews (15 min.), and trailers. Exclusive to the Blu-ray release is an unrated version of the film with an alternate ending, an expanded “The World of Fifty Shades of Grey” collection of cast interviews and character profiles (52 min. total), a “Fifty Shades: The Pleasure of Pain” featurette on BDSM (9 min.), an “E.L. James & Fifty Shades” interview with the author (6 min.), a “Christian's Apartment: 360 Degree Set Tour” interactive tour, a tease for the sequel Fifty Shades Darker (1 min.), music videos for “I Know You” by Skylar Grey and “Earned It” by The Weekend (11 min.), and bonus DVD, digital, and UltraViolet copies of the film. Bottom line: a fine Blu-ray extras package for a tepid kinky romance.] (S. Granger)