A friend, who hasn’t read the books, got a ‘BIG’ surprise when she sat in the audience of the premiere of the Fifty Shades of Grey film.

However, her simple verdict of the blockbuster bondage and sadomasochistic adaptation of E.L James’ book pretty much summed it up, even for those who’ve read every mercurial word.

“Pretty good, I think”

Because there has been so much lambasting of the trilogy, the film was expected to undergo the same inanimate character assassination but just as you meet a person who has been derided and you find them interesting if not enjoyable company, so too was the surprise outcome of this movie.

I liked it. Certainly not award winning, but entertaining, even without being tied up.

Dakota Johnson was quite captivating, although she did often remind me of Kirsten Stewart and her character Bella’s doe-eyed, soft-talking fascination with a vampire and there are definite similarities of the sex with violence in both of these tales.

As another friend said, “it’s like porn for twilight fans.”

And yes, there are some blood-stirring sex scenes.

After all the whole plot, about an adopted billionaire sadist with emotional childhood baggage and an aversion to intimacy who seduces a virginal college student and introduces her to a world of submission, domination and bondage, is a love story, isn’t it?

So of course there’s sex.

There’s just more props, and it’s a little raunchier and more time-consuming than I am assume most of us would have experience of.

There were suggestions prior to the film’s release that there was no chemistry between the two lead stars, and I was looking to spot the fake attraction but Jamie Dornan, who portrayed Christian Grey was a believable heartthrob dominant. (probably because I don’t think I’ve ever met one)

It’s definately not a comedy but if you have read the books, there are numerous laugh-out-loud moments, not because they are funny but because they are laughable and I think that just adds to the enjoyment of seeing this film. C’mon who bites their lips that much and speaks like that?

Bottom line (and you see plenty of them and more) it’s not a movie I’d comfortably sit through with my mother or daughter, and in fact I did wonder what Melanie Griffiths and Don Johnson (Dakota’s parents) would think, but it is worth seeing. Just for the titillating fun of it.