The Temptation of Eve

"The Temptation of Eve", misleadingly titled is one of filmmaker Jacky St. James' promising early efforts in a career that for me at least has fizzled out rather quickly. She made a big splash three years ago, but has settled into the crank 'em out XXX rut (think of Fred Lincoln or Carter Stevens back in the day) lately.

She wisely cast Remy LaCroix in the lead -she who would become perhaps the most celebrated actress of her generation. There's some good individual scenes in the writing of the contrived script, but it doesn't hold together. Chief story gimmick is that Remy and her struggling young beau Tommy Pistol are living at the mansion of her former boyfriend Snidely Whiplash, oops! - I mean Xander Corvus, fitting the role of a heavy oh so easily.

Taking place during the recent steep recession, Jacky makes good thematic use of the problems besetting folks out of work, and the very best scene in Act IV has an interesting variation on the Biblical myth of Lot's Wife. But most of the dramaturgy is artificial and just interesting enough to set up the requisite lengthy XXX scenes. For variation, Bailey Blue is impressive as a sexy bimbo, and always reliable India Summer graces the proceedings in a forgettable role.

But Xander the manipulator is a paper-thin characterization, perhaps passing muster in the inevitable pay-cable late-night soft-core edition of the movie, but still a drag overall. Pistol has yet to impress me, leaving Remy to salvage the movie with her always sympathetic yet often depressed character, better seen in Nica Noelle's "Nobody's Daughter", made the same year as "Eve".

I think "Eve" would have made a better film as a period piece (would have required a significantly bigger budget, however), in which the antiquated folkways of a "Jane Eyre" type story could have given the Xander character (re-cast) some depth as well as challenging Remy a bit more.