Fifty Shades of Grey

I wish it had either been much better or much worse.

Fifty Shades of Grey delivers, however ponderously, on its promise of pop transgressiveness.

This alien quality is what makes Dornan so effective as Christian.

Actress Dakota Johnson brings humor, sensitivity and vulnerability to Anastasia, making her the clear breakout performance of Fifty Shades [of Grey].

Basically, they made a lousy, mid-2000s-era Katherine Heigl romance with a handful of explicit sex scenes spliced throughout the familiar clichés.

One suspects that Taylor-Johnson was never free even to push at the edges of sexual representation, and the film's lack of explicit imagery and grit is one of its disappointments.

As dodgy, ludicrous and funny, as the film might be, as a public spectacle it’s probably not as embarrassing as being seen reading the book

Here's a film that is offensive only in how inoffensive it proves to be.

Feels like an elegantly made - the cinematography and score are top notch - night time soap opera.

At least, the film goes out of the way to show the use of condoms.