I know great acting when I see it -just to namedrop Brits I've seen on stage: Helen Mirren as Lady Macbeth, opposite the late Nicol Williamson, Williamson in "Inadmissible Evidence"; Glenda Jackson as Nora in "A Doll's House" (opposite her movie co-star Jennie Linden) and Albert Finney and Ralph Richardson doing Restoration comedy. When I watch porn I continue to hold it to a high standard in hopes of being impressed - watching actors doing explicit sex films, not "players" or "models" merely humping.
Very few people, especially in the world of IMDb where I post my opinions, agree with me -the prevailing attitude follows John Stagliano's oft- expressed manifesto that porn should be just about creating an erotic scene, with acting/story a complete waste of time and energy. Steven St. Croix and Remy LaCroix have given innumerable performances that instantly disprove this notion, and in "Torn" we have a test case of the ability of a porn movie to be an extension of the mainstream "real" movie universe.
St. Croix is suffering a familiar mid-life crisis - everything including his love life with wife India Summer has settled into a rut, making him an automaton as described in Colin Wilson's philosophical books dating back to the '50s. Young Remy comes along as his key to the fountain of youth, and from this material writer Jacky St. James and her collaborator Eddie Powell have fashioned an engrossing romantic drama, with plenty of XXX content. It's a work filled with promise, though sadly both Jacky and Eddie have lapsed into their own mega-ruts in the four years since, cranking out hundreds of ephemeral assembly-line gimmick porn (about BDSM subjects, fake incest and cradle-robbing).
Summer is sympathetic as always, cementing her position as the great Adult actress of the current generation. Watching "Torn", which the BTS featurette on the DVD reveals was originally titled "The Betrayal", one empathizes with all three central characters, and a superlative cast also features Raylene in a significant supporting role and even Tom Byron manages to surmount most (not all, he is still addicted to porn-speak during sex) of the bad habits he acquired in 30 years of non-stop sex on screen as Raylene's swinger husband.
Of course, gonzo fans will write this whole feature off as mere soap opera, not ballsy or dirty enough to merit viewing, but that's missing the point. To bring up an old cause, IMDb should get around to creating a major genre category of Erotic to replace the current Adult ghetto the website uses to fence off titles to protect youngsters and gentle souls from the horrors of reading about porn. Erotic films could encompass both hardcore and soft-core specimens, ranging from "Body Heat" to "Torn". IMDb could even keep the Adult category, to be populated by the 99%-plus of current gonzo porn that offers zero eroticism, just raw sex.
