Film review: Fifty Shades of Grey (18, 125 mins)

British author EL James self-published the first instalment of her erotically charged trilogy before the first hardback edition was released in March 2012.

Critics might have been less than flattering, giving the book a sharp verbal spanking, but the public were seduced by James’ depiction of the intensely physical relationship between a college graduate and a handsome megarich businessman and propelled the tome to the top of the bestseller lists on both sides of the Atlantic. In the UK, such was the clamour for copies of the paperback that Fifty Shades Of Grey outsold JK Rowling and Dan Brown, author of The Da Vinci Code, and opened the floodgates on a raft of books crudely dubbed ‘mummy porn’.

Taylor-Wood’s film has been closely guarded from prying eyes until its international premiere on February 11 at the Berlin Film Festival, before a star-studded UK premiere in London’s Leicester Square the following day.

Aside from the removal of one of the book’s most infamous scenes involving a tampon, the glossy big screen adaptation remains faithful to James’ text.

Star rating: 4/10

Released: February 13