I'm very fond of my FA 50 (And I do use it with a big ol' hood) ...if there's a lower score in reviews it's probably from those who want something more meant to be really sharp wide-open for the bokeh fiends. For a 'people' lens, this isn't a 'bug' to me, actually. I'm usually stopped down a little, anyway, just cause I'm not all about going for the really-narrow DOF anyway. And it is plenty sharp at apertures where I want it to be, perfectly acceptable wide-open.
There's no shortage of choices in 50mm ish lenses, so could almost say what you want to do and people could probably recommend a specific model for that.