Wide Open Spaces (VCA) Review

Reviewed by Nat Hocken  on  7/5/2003

Hollywood actress Kelly O’Dell moves from L.A. to a cabin in Montana for some peace of mind, but discovers that in Montana, if you’re a lesbian, finding a piece of tail is a more difficult proposition. “Wide Open Spaces” (1995), directed by Wesley Emerson, is first-rate first-generation porn. I say first-generation because it looks like the kind of movie you’d make if Hollywood were your inspiration rather than other porn films. The story isn’t very good, but it’s serviceable and pleasant and it keeps the movie on track. It is, in other words, an excellent first attempt. I say first-rate because the sex is performed by a cast of cuties who know exactly what they’re doing and how to get their enthusiasm over on screen.

It’s rare for every scene in a porn movie—any porn movie—to be compilation-worthy. I’m referring to an ideal compilation, one where the words “best of” actually mean something. Yet that’s the case here. You know I mean what I say if Jeanna Fine is a member of the cast. Jeanna has her admirers, but I’m not one of them. I think she’s coarse and cynical, an unwelcome dose of reality in a fantasy-driven genre. Here, though, her demeanor, toned down slightly, works perfectly in a scene with Tina Tyler, a judgmental prude who claims to be disgusted by the thought of girl/girl love. She’s no match for Jeanna, who soon has her eating pussy and loving it.

This is how “Spaces” ends; how it begins is with Kelly O’Dell, hard up and unsatisfied by the pages of “Swank,” using her imagination to conjure up Juli Ashton. Having recently seen “Basically Becca,” it was a real treat to see Juli looking seven or eight years younger and whole lot cuter. One brief moment has the two girls coming together in a wash of beautiful curly hair that adds a gorgeous visual to the hungry sex.

In between, Jeanna screws Misty Rain, Kelly gets together with Nina Hartley (a fellow actress who says she’s in town working on an adaptation of “Camelia”), and Felecia and Sindee Coxx make room for Misty in a barroom bathroom. (The latter scene, at least, did make it into a compilation: “Deep Inside Sindee Coxx.”) And through it all, the delight and enthusiasm with which the girls approach their partners is enthralling. “Wide Open Spaces” isn’t the best girl/girl movie on the market, but it’s without doubt one of the most consistently entertaining.

A few notes. Foreplay is mostly of the narrative variety; that is, the girls talk then jump into sex. Kissing is poorly represented, though Kelly and Nina share a few nice ones before getting down to business. Toys make an appearance in every scene but the two with Jeanna Fine. And Misty Rain provides the film its only anal action (Jeanna fingers her ass and Felecia inserts a vibrator). However your taste falls in relation to these factors, none of them takes into account this film’s main selling point: pretty girls who really look like they’re enjoying themselves.

Oh, and one last note. Contrary to Nina Hartley’s assertion, J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s “lesbian vampire” story isn’t called “Camelia.” It’s called “Carmilla.”