Toxic

After hitting paydirt at the New Sensations porn label with hit movies about bondage, faux incest and hotwifing, filmmaker Jacky St. James has mainly repeated herself switching over to Mile High Media and routine, often vignette DVDs for its labels Sweet Sinner and Bellesa.

"Toxic" has her in a more serious and creative mode - making what used to be called (in the 1940s and 1950s) "a woman's picture" about the plight of heroine Alia Donovan caught in a toxic relationship with selfish boyfriend Quinton James.

To be sure, Jacky's screenplay gives Quentin's character Alec plenty of opportunities to express his male (chauvinist) point-of-view, which amounts to an old double standard whereby he's allowed to be unfaithful to Aila's character Hope, while she's abused for doing likewise. Ultimately they're introduced to an "open relationship" approach favored by Hope's friends Victoria Voxxx and Ryan McLane, but the drama does not end happily.

Using black and white flashbacks and effective dramatic acting acting, "Toxic" packs more of a punch than most recent story porn wherein the story elements are usually perfunctory lead-ins to XXX scenes.

How one reacts to the new actress Aila, who is central to the story, will determine whether Jacky's movie succeeds with the viewer. She resesembles Euro superstar Tina Kay, but is not as beautiful and is flat-chested. In this role she has outrageous, industrial strength false eyelashes that I found distracting and even her eyebrows look painted on - hardly appealing.