'Fifty Shades of Grey' whips up box-office frenzy

The film, starring Jamie Dornan as a billionaire with a penchant for S&M and Dakota Johnson as a virginal student who falls for him, is being marketed as a torrid touchstone for a generation too young to remember "9 1/2 Weeks" or "Last Tango in Paris".

It is guaranteed early box office success because of the phenomenal sales of the book written by E.L. James, a British writer who got her start writing fan fiction for that other romantically fuelled Young Adult hit, "Twilight".

Her 2011 "Fifty Shades of Grey" novel has sold 100 million copies internationally, confounding critics who savaged it for its shallow plot, characters and style.

The movie will ride strongly on its canny release in time for this weekend's Valentine's Day celebrations, when it will be the date-movie to see.

'Very soft'

Before the official "premiere" later Wednesday at the Berlin film festival, early reviews from many European cinema-goers said it had not lived up to its racy billing.

In Paris, 70-year-old Christine, an avowed fan of the novel, said after a morning showing: "I was disappointed. I didn't think the actors or the script were up to the level of what was in the book."

"I expected something a bit more hardcore," said an audience member in Brussels, Jaelle Van Den Bril.

But many others were entertained -- which will relieve the studio, Universal Pictures, after weeks of online rumours of discord on the set of the movie between the two lead actors, and between the female director Sam Taylor-Johnson and the author.

Taylor-Johnson, wearing a skin-tight white Stella McCartney dress at the gala screening in Berlin, said she loved James' work.

"When I read it I thought I haven't seen anything quite so cinematic and interesting and powerful," she said, insisting that the cast had great chemistry.

"The great thing about when the two of them met -- they're both quite competitively funny," she said.

"They like to make each other laugh constantly and that's quite an attractive thing."

Novelist James also dismissed the rumours of discord as she arrived for the screening in Berlin, calling it a "great film".

"It's been an interesting and surreal but very educational experience. I've learned a lot," she said.

Professional critics were divided, though most admitted the movie was competent even if substance was lacking. The review aggregator website rottentomatoes.com gave it an initial rating of 55 percent.

Variety, the US cinema trade magazine, said the "glossy, well cast" film was "not exactly whip-smart, but... in many ways a significant improvement" on the novel. Supposedly risque scenes turned out to be "fairly mild provocation in this porn-saturated day and age".

The story focuses on the fictional billionaire Christian Grey, whose dark secret is a domination fetish involving handcuffs, blindfolds and whips.

Dornan, a 32-year-old married British actor and former male model, picked up the leading role after the first choice, fellow Brit actor Charlie Hunnam, who stars in the US television series "Sons of Anarchy", dropped out.

Dornan's co-lead, as the shy literature student Anastasia Steele who ultimately stands up to Grey, is Johnson, the 25-year-old daughter of actress Melanie Griffith and "Miami Vice" actor Don Johnson.

"We filmed the movie in such a private, enclosed environment," actress Johnson said as she arrived on the red carpet, calling it "wild" to see the legions of fans outside the cinema.

Asked about the abundant nude scenes in the movie, Dornan said he wished he had had more time to work out to prepare.

But he added: "I actually spend quite a lot of time naked so that doesn't feel like that big a deal to a British person."

The movie has earned an R-rating in the US, barring under-17s from seeing it without a parent or adult guardian. Malaysia has banned the movie.

In other countries used to seeing nakedness on the big screen, such as France, the age restriction is lower.

In France unaccompanied 12-year-olds are allowed to watch it.