40 ans, Déjà Veuve

Riding a wave of hits for Marc Dorcel, British filmmaker Liselle Bailey tips the balance toward all-sex in this pantomime drama of a widow getting sexually liberated.

Told entirely via voice-over narration (star Alexis Fawx handles the English-language track version), Bailey has an intriguing premise whereby widow Fawx and her husband Dorian Del Isla's mistress Cassie Del Isla (clever casting of real-life spouses for fictional role-reversal) only find out that both have been betrayed by D at his funeral following a car crash.

We see Alexis humping away with big D in flashback, as well as a brief montage of Cassie's life with him; for some reason Alexis in voice-over pronounces her rival's name consistently as "Casey".

But the women in black soon bond, and Alexis is surprised to learn that Cassie has lived with Dorian for four years in an open relationship, he having established secretly two households in his double life existence.

Fawx is shocked by the younger woman's open approach to sex, vividly demonstrated when she's invited one night to observe by the light of her car's headlights a strong threesome consisting of Cassie, Tina Kay and a stud, staged for her benefit. She has a stand-up outdoor tryst with her late husband's best friend Tony DeSergio and the show climaxes with a fabulous battle of the double d's as Liselle brings Rebecca More back (who co-starred with the Del Isla team in support of another American superstar import Brandi Love in Bailey's recent hit "Military Misconduct") for a finale threesome of More, Fawx and another well-hung fellow.

The sex is strong, but pacing off due to Bailey's not developing her story but rather using it merely as a spring board for a succession of stylish XXX set pieces. Hopefully she will return to full form in future Dorcel outings.