Falling From Grace (Wicked Pictures) Review
Wicked
Studio: Wicked
Category: Couples , Feature film
Directed by: Brad Armstrong
Starring: Felecia, Randy Spears, Mike Horner, Brad Armstrong, Stephanie Swift, Kitten, jessica drake, Dillion Day, Voodoo, Nicole Sheridan, Joey Ray, Stormy Daniels, Sydnee Steele
Released on: 2/14/2003
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The Church and the adult industry are almost by definition mutually exclusive from one another, so of course it turns heads when the idea of a pornographic film featuring a member of the clergy engaged in carnal activities surfaces in the form of Brad Armstrong's Falling From Grace. The story premise is fairly simple: Jared Summers (Brad Armstrong) returns home one day to find his girlfriend, Grace (Sydnee Steele), banging some other guy (Dillon Day). Five years later, he's turned to the priesthood and she's returned to make amends. Conflicts of the soul, primal desires, and obvious religious implications (although very toned down and superficial) rule the rest of the movie as Brad's character decides whether he wants to be "Jared" or "Father Summers." As a couple's feature, we expect that the story will dominate and that the sex will be pretty vanilla, and Falling From Grace is no exception. Other than the taboo aspect of seeing a robed and collared priest get a blowjob in a church anteroom or hearing a confessionary description of lesbian sex, the movie is far less controversial and arousing as some may lead you to believe. That blowjob is pretty well done, although if you've seen Private's regular exploration of religious figures engaged in hardcore, it won't have the same shock effect. The climatic scene between Grace and Jared is a standard boy-girl scene that doesn't have the energy I would expect from years of pent-up desire and his decision to give in to his lust. The best scene of the movie comes in the form of a hot girl-girl scene between Stephanie Swift and Felicia. It has all of the elements of a hot, non-lipstick lesbian scene: slim, natural breasted girls, enthusiastic licking, wet finger-fucking, pussy juice sucking, toy play, kissing, anal penetration, and mutual masturbation. I can pretty much guarantee that if you get those two together for a girl-girl scene that it will be a good one! Even if you don't count the initial, mechanical, adulterous scene between Sydnee and a way-too-buff Dillon Day, about half of the sex scenes don't even relate to the religious plot. There's two scenes filmed in an alley featuring prostitutes (Jessica Drake, Nicole Sheridan, and Kitten) and their johns (Joey Ray and Voodoo), both of which I found to be boring (gee, sex in an alley with hookers--that's so New Wave Hookers!). Randy Spears, who plays an old friend of the priest, has a surprisingly tender love scene with Stormy that will be popular with couples, but is it something that guys will get off to? Probably not. The acting performances in Falling From Grace are disappointingly sub-par. Sydnee Steele, who's normally good with dialogue, seems distant and distracted throughout, and her pleas for Brad's character to leave the cloth to return to her lack sincerity. Brad turns in one of his worst acting performances of his career--well, to be fair, I'm not sure that it's so much his acting or the fact that he's playing a priest that's the problem. With his halting dialogue delivery, "Father Summers" comes across not like a Catholic priest, but as an actor who's trying to play one. Similarly, Mike Horner as "Father James" is equally unconvincing, which surprises me since he is perhaps the best character actor in the history of the business. Maybe it's just the irony of an adult actor playing such a polar opposite? As expected for a Brad Armstrong feature, Wicked has included a church busload of extras, including some nicely done on-the-set interviews, an audio commentary featuring Armstrong and Steele, a 39-minute behind-the-scenes video, Easter eggs, and more. However, it's kind of like the mainstream special editions of bad movies: no matter how much stuff you include on the DVD, it usually doesn't help a mediocre movie. I'm also disappointed that despite including a Dolby 5.1 soundtrack, Wicked did not release Falling From Grace in anamorphic widescreen like they did with Euphoria. I'll admit that I was expecting more from Falling From Grace given its positive press and Wicked/Brad Armstrong/Jonathan Morgan's collective reputation for producing some of the best adult feature films. It's a case of the whole is much less than the sum of its parts. As an 'A-List' release, it falls short of my expectations, but rises above the standard, non-blockbuster couple's film. If you're looking for something to watch that has a decent story with B-movie acting, couples-friendly sex, and good production value, you will probably be happy with Falling From Grace. If, however, you're expecting something on the order of Flashpoint, Euphoria, or other Wicked masterpieces, then you should pass this time.
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