For his debut Wicked Pictures feature, David Stanley brought one of his better scripts, dealing with a woman at the end of her tether, trying to establish her own identity. But despite a top-notch character role by lead Nicole Sheridan, and even an impressive NonSex role for the director himself, this ambitious feature is fatally harmed by a poorly- staged climax scene and some obvious sex filler preceding it.
Stanley's career-long problem is that he clearly has enough talent to fashion interesting Adult Cinema scripts, literally dozens of them that can be considered worthwhile, but somehow lacks the fully-developed and realized achievement to mark him as ready to crossover into mainstream cinema. My guess is that his heart is (and forever was) in porn, making all this conjecture moot.
MANY SPOILERS ALONG THE WAY:
Structured with several arbitrary flashbacks, story has Sheridan a wife told off by her rather brutish cop husband (Chris Cannon) for his imagined having to "carry her" -knocking her inability to love him even though he works so hard to support her. He walks out on her after finding out she's pregnant, and making matters worse she's robbed by a burglar (played by Stanley in one of two roles), making her afraid to even enter her house again.
She's befriended briefly by a kindly neighbor/jogger but that subplot isn't resolved until much later. Film dwells primarily on her relationship with Voodoo (Nicole's famous real-life husband and frequent co-star), an avant-garde photographer and performance artist who introduces her to a kinky world she's not ready for. Worse yet, he proves to be as overbearing as her hubby.
Kim Kane is effective as the sort of go-between character who introduces Nicole to Voodoo in the first place. They are old school girl chums from Minnesota who encounter each other years later in a bar bathroom during Nicole's "afraid to go home" stage. Later director Stanley happens upon Nicole in the same ladies' restroom and propositions her in a very offbeat scene during which David channels the look and spirit or Brad Dourif, to amazing effect.
Many extras and supporting sex performers appear en route to a contrived climax that is abysmally staged and directed. Stanley contrives to have Nicole back home with now-lover Spears and former lover Voodoo, all while hubby Cannon has mysteriously returned home too, for a ridiculous stand-off. Fulfilling an earlier statement of intent, Nicole hauls off and punches Cannon in the nose, but the take used in the final print is so lousy she misses his face by a foot and a half. The entire scene is awful, and negates much of the interesting material leading up to it.
As a near-saver, Stanley finishes the film with a truly poetic shot of Nicole closing her front door, deciding to make it strictly on her own (shedding all three "suitors"), and with a light snowfall magically appearing in L.A. to send the viewer home (if this were a mainstream theatrical feature) with a warm, fuzzy feeling. But alas, I found this moment of brilliance wasted after muffing the "big scene" directly preceding it.
Stanley's career-long problem is that he clearly has enough talent to fashion interesting Adult Cinema scripts, literally dozens of them that can be considered worthwhile, but somehow lacks the fully-developed and realized achievement to mark him as ready to crossover into mainstream cinema. My guess is that his heart is (and forever was) in porn, making all this conjecture moot.
MANY SPOILERS ALONG THE WAY:
Structured with several arbitrary flashbacks, story has Sheridan a wife told off by her rather brutish cop husband (Chris Cannon) for his imagined having to "carry her" -knocking her inability to love him even though he works so hard to support her. He walks out on her after finding out she's pregnant, and making matters worse she's robbed by a burglar (played by Stanley in one of two roles), making her afraid to even enter her house again.
She's befriended briefly by a kindly neighbor/jogger but that subplot isn't resolved until much later. Film dwells primarily on her relationship with Voodoo (Nicole's famous real-life husband and frequent co-star), an avant-garde photographer and performance artist who introduces her to a kinky world she's not ready for. Worse yet, he proves to be as overbearing as her hubby.
Kim Kane is effective as the sort of go-between character who introduces Nicole to Voodoo in the first place. They are old school girl chums from Minnesota who encounter each other years later in a bar bathroom during Nicole's "afraid to go home" stage. Later director Stanley happens upon Nicole in the same ladies' restroom and propositions her in a very offbeat scene during which David channels the look and spirit or Brad Dourif, to amazing effect.
Many extras and supporting sex performers appear en route to a contrived climax that is abysmally staged and directed. Stanley contrives to have Nicole back home with now-lover Spears and former lover Voodoo, all while hubby Cannon has mysteriously returned home too, for a ridiculous stand-off. Fulfilling an earlier statement of intent, Nicole hauls off and punches Cannon in the nose, but the take used in the final print is so lousy she misses his face by a foot and a half. The entire scene is awful, and negates much of the interesting material leading up to it.
As a near-saver, Stanley finishes the film with a truly poetic shot of Nicole closing her front door, deciding to make it strictly on her own (shedding all three "suitors"), and with a light snowfall magically appearing in L.A. to send the viewer home (if this were a mainstream theatrical feature) with a warm, fuzzy feeling. But alas, I found this moment of brilliance wasted after muffing the "big scene" directly preceding it.