Virgin Canvas, The Review

Reviewed by sweet dave  on  8/9/2003

For Adam & Eve, whose efforts are either "too artsy" or too poorly done to be enjoyable, Virgin Canvas is quite beautiful. If only the film's writing and acting were of such quality.

The premise of the film is an interesting, if not unique, idea; a young female art student arrives at an elite art school, whose older director gives her an education in art and passion. This concept is blostered by the casting of porn veteran Steven St. Croix as the art director. St. Croix is no longer the stud he was a few years ago in the sex department, but he was always, in my opinion, the finest pure actor the adult industry has ever had and he has not lost any of that. Steven does a fine job with the poor material, yet what dooms the plot is the horrific acting of the star Kate Frost. There is a reason why this gorgeous blonde is in the adult industry and not in mainstream films, and it has little to do with her abilities as a sex performer. Kate is supposed to evolve in the film, from an innocent young student to a passionate artist, yet she shows no sign of such a transformation. She simply coyly smiles through the whole film, even during and after her two sex scenes, even if her smile is as gorgeous as the rest of her. In fact, part of me is glad she can't act, even if it means she needs to stay far away from feature adulkt films.

I focus on the story this much because it consumes nearly as much time of the film as the sex, which I have no complaints about. The first sex scene is between Sandra Hall, a stunning brunette whose statuesque body seems molded from bronze, and Julian, a rising young male star. Sandra is a sight to behold and delivers a good amount of passion.

The second scene is between Steven St. Croix and two lovely slender blonde, Ashley Long and Angel Long. Now I have no idea if these two girls are sisters (it is not mentioned in the cast biography in the bonus section) but they look completely identical, down to matching tongue and navel piercings. The only way to tell them apart is from the various tatoos they have. However, I want to call them twins, kissing twins since they spend as much time tonguing each other as they do Steven St. Croix. For those who have ever had a twins fetish, this scene may satisfy it for you.

The third scene is a disappointment. Jaclean takes on two men, Joey Ray and Steven Hatcher, but it's merely orally and vaginally and there was not a whole lot of passion between the three.

The fourth scene is the pinnacle of the plot, yet Steven and Kate Frost do not provide the spark that the plot needed. Kate comes in wearing a toga to model from Steven, and within a minute, they're down by the fire with Kate on her hands and knees sucking Steven. Unfortunately, the camera work in this scene is so poror that much of the time, a vase of flowers is right in between the camera and Kate's head bobbing up and down. The sex itself isn't bad, but I wasn't thrilled with it.

The fifth scene is a fantasy in which Kate imagines a couple, Lezley Zen and Lee Stone, up on a balcony. It's a very short scene, but satisfying while it lasted.

The sixth and final scene is quite odd plot-wise, but is satisfying. Steven decides to give Kate up to his young protege Julian, who takes her halfway up a flight of spiral stairs and ravishes her. The rationale for the scene is a bit strange, but the sex is very good. Kate is a good sex performer, once you can see her clearly, and she gives a very good final performance with Julian.

Virgin Canvas is not a bad sex movie; Sandra, "the twins" and the final scene with Kate all give good performaces. However, if you want to enjoy this film for the story, you will not enjoy it.