Dear Abby

Jacky St. James near at the beginning of her career took home an award for scripting this flat, poorly-cast New Sensations romance for couples DVD, a far cry from the best of her later work.

Title refers to a switcheroo: the advice columnist in the movie is played, limply, by Giovanni Francesco, and his final "let's get back together" missive is written in the final reel to his ex Abby played by Natasha Nice. Both leads' casting is deficient, as Francesco's acting is poor (lately he's been career-switched to playing leading men to transsexual females in the increasingly popular TS porn genre) and Nice has zero presence on screen, especially because this feature was shot before she had breast-enhancement surgery to assume her more familiar screen persona.

Main gimmick of Jacky's script is that the leads still live together despite ending their romantic relationship. Both want to retain ownership of the house, leading to ongoing conflict in what is clearly an untenable arrangement.

Zoe Voss is far, far more appealing than Natasha in a supporting role, and Michael Vegas's serio-comic relief is better than usual for the unfortunately prone to hamminess actor. With New Sensations cameraman directing the movie plods along in boring fashion en route to a cornball conclusion.

In the past couple of years, the porn label has abandoned the Romance genre and kept Powell on the payroll while Jacky moved on (to Mile High Media), much to the detriment of its now generic sex product line.