Sexual Liberation Of Anna Lee, The Review

Reviewed by T0MBOne  on  4/4/2014

Writer/director Jacky St. James also lands a cameo as Dr. Sabato, the therapist who recommends Anna Lee (lovely Maddy O'Reilly) to the Variel House sex clinic run by the Savages (Steve St. Croix and India Summer) in the opening minutes of the terrific feature THE SEXUAL LIBERATION OF ANNA LEE (2014, New Sensations-Erotic Stories) with Xander Corvus as Emmett, another patient undergoing treatment at the clinic. St. James does a mostly terrific job of keeping this tale concentrated on Anna Lee and her sexual plight; however, she gradually brings Anna Lee and Emmett together so that this flick becomes just as much about Emmett and his intimacy issues as Anna and her uptight upbringing. It's longer than need be at just over 2 hours (more about that later) but this simple story with a relatively small cast of characters gets a huge boost from Eddie Powell as DP, co-editor and post production person plus Paul Woodcrest on second camera. Wide screen. No condoms.

So Anna Lee (Maddy) listens to the Savages talk about their clinic where they don't practice conventional therapy. She signs a release and is told not to communicate with the other male patient on the grounds. Soon, an envelope arrives that details her task for that particular day. Whitney Savage (India Summer) blindfolds Anna then brings in a male assistant (Johnny Castle) so that Anna can feel his chest and then kneel down to touch his erect prick. A sex scene ensues between Whitney and her assistant that's part of Anna 's treatment as she's instructed to "focus on the sound." It's a solid straight sex encounter on a couch captured in mostly brown/sepia tones with occasional moments of a potted pink flower in the background. India Summer looks beautiful (as usual) as she rides Castle while she only wears these sexy half boots and white knee-high hosiery.

Anna starts a video diary dated 8/3/13 where states that this is not what she had signed up for. Really? An early flaw in this tale is that Anna Lee with her "issues" seems not so different than the hundreds of thousands of uptight young women out there. So, she agrees to this specialized treatment that has been labeled "unconventional" by all parties. So what did she sign up for?

The good news is that Emmett (hunky Xander) is also a patient and the duo meet in a reading room. Later, in her bedroom, she fantasizes about Xander then gets up the next day to another card under her door, another task at hand. She puts on lovely lingerie and is told by Whitney that "sexuality comes from within."

The focus shifts to Emmett as Whitney conducts his therapy session. He details how he wants a life of "no entanglements" which leads to a solid sexual encounter with a masked prostitute (Natalie Starr) tied to the bed frame as Emmett mish fucks her with his clothes on. He's a bit rough with her, tears her panties and fishnets. His clothes come off then he eventually unties her so that she can go down on him, which leads to a terrific cowgirl ride. This sex scene goes on longer than it should and should have concluded with face fucking since this encounter was all about his dominating this mystery woman, whom he pays, tells to keep the mask on, which she does until she angrily discards it at the end of a darkened hallway.

Anna's tasks begin to mount until she finally has a session with Gaige Savage (St. Croix) who has Elize (lovely Jessa Rhodes) stand before them. He tells Anna "tell me who she is" and Anna eventually lets her imagination take control as she describes Anna as a sexual being in narration that segues into an encounter between Gaige and Elize on a another couch only this time with more color emerging than the brown tones that had so ruled the visual quality of earlier sexual encounters. It's a solid straight sex scene that would have been better had Anna's narration continued throughout-not just a concluding "she never leaves unsatisfied."

At this juncture, Emmett and Anna begin performing their daily tasks together. Gaige criticizes Emmett for failing to use his imagination when asked to "tell me who she is" in reference to Anna. He's angry that Emmett is holding back. Some of these ensuing tasks are too glossed over, which is too bad because the DVD suddenly seems to be in a hurry to reach a point where Anna has fallen for Emmett at about the time Emmett quits treatment.

A heart-broken Anna Lee continues and completes a final task where she "surrenders" to the Savages, their male assistant and Elize in a darkened S & M environ with Anna Lee blindfolded and handcuffed to a black X structure. The final task includes light flogging, dildo thrusting and pussy feathering along with chocolate and oils dripped down Anna's chest, tummy and pussy. A terrific five shot concludes this terrific dark encounter as the outer males embrace the two females embracing Anna Lee in the center.

Anna Lee wraps up her video diary with her last entry of 9/12/2013 and eventually hooks up with Emmett thanks to some intervention from the folks at Variel House. They embrace in the doorway of his apartment, which leads to a terrific bedroom encounter with Anna Lee handcuffing him to the bed at the outset then Emmett having his way with Anna Lee for the finale. Emmett's intimacy issues seem to be waning as he finally tells her "who she is" in his mind, which is his way of finishing the task that Gaige had so wanted him to complete in treatment.

So, kudos to Jacky St. James for making THE SEXUAL LIBERATION OF ANNA LEE (2014, New Sensations Erotic Stories) almost as much about Emmett's journey as Anna Lee's liberation. Both characters develop in such a way that their final encounter rings true in relation to their progression in and out of treatment. Maddy O'Reilly and Xander Corvus are fine here and India Summer and Steve St. Croix stay on a steady course with their portrayals of Whitney and Gaige Savage, the married sexual therapists of Variel House. The biggest problem is the glossing over of those tasks that Anna Lee and Emmett must perform together. Their characters would have been so much richer and fuller had the filmmakers given those tasks more screen time and those encounters between Whitney and the assistant, Gaige and Elize, less time.

As is, THE SEXUAL LIBERATION OF ANNA LEE is pretty close to being a !!!!! flick. Maybe, with future productions, the folks at New Sensations will allow Jack St. James and her production team full control over the final product in terms of sex scene length. Make a really solid 90 minute movie then use the rest of the DVD for extended sex scenes as the main attraction in the special features, which is what was done here with that extended version of the final task.

THE SEXUAL LIBERATION OF ANNA LEE takes a load of !s with !!!! outta !!!!!