Nica Noelle has created many masterpieces in her prolific Adult Cinema (video era) career over the past decade, but this 5th volume in Sweet Sinner's "Babysitter" series is perhaps her most subtle feature to date. I suspect what's left of the Adult audience will find it either quaint or more likely way too soft, having had their senses dulled by a couple of decades of gonzo junk, but I was bowled over by her simplicity and avoidance of cliché.
As a chamber drama, with five characters, no exterior scenes and in fact all four XXX sex scenes staged on four-poster beds, this material is often hermetic and overly familiar. But Nica on this occasion decided to eschew the expected dramatic confrontations, plot twists and other gimmickry that one would expect of such material both in mainstream and porn projects.
Michelle Lay and Mr. Marcus are a happily married couple who have a two- year-old daughter (shown only in photos on screen), but Michelle wants to go back to working at a regular job (she had an unsuccessful business from home) after reviewing a stack of bills in the opening set-up scene. Marcus gives her the okay, but that means they'll need a babysitter.
Married friends of theirs Tanya Tate and Evan Stone invite them over for the evening, and Tanya recommends Lily Carter as a babysitter, though Evan seems flustered by the suggestion, setting up minor suspense that something is amiss. Nica delivers very naturalistic, well-performed sex scenes for Marcus & Michelle and separately Tanya & Evan, both couples having striking 4-poster beds at home.
Lily arrives and Carter gives an alluring, mysterious performance, never turning into the "bad seed" character one would expect, but ultimately seducing Marcus for the finale, left open-ended as usual by Noelle, who likes to fade out after the final money shot and let the viewer ponder what will happen next.
Before that payoff, Evan feels quite guilty and finally phones Marcus to beware of the girl, who probably lied about her references and is a seductress. Even though he had wondered about her several times before, Marcus easily succumbs to the little minx, and the viewer can hardly quibble with his decision.
So nothing exciting or surprising happens here, which is Nica's surprise, using reverse psychology. By the very nature of the genre, and the hints or possible red herrings planted along the way (chiefly Evan's off-kilter behavior), one would bet that something bad is going to happen. In a mainstream film, where the satisfying XXX scenes are verboten, a violent outcome would be probable, with perhaps the child in danger (Lily might kidnap it or threaten its life) or "evil Lily" meeting a fatal end.
Instead we have the characters enjoying Eros, not Thanatos, and the oh- so subtle end point of Lily's slightly evil half-smile at fade-out in Marcus' arms.
Acting is excellent all-around, especially by Lily and Michelle, whose characters come to life despite the "sex is all" emphasis of even Sweet Sinner porn. Another subtlety is that the miscegenation and interracial sex angles of casting super-stud Mr. Marcus in the leading role is never made explicit -he's Michelle's loving husband and that's it. Nica may be slaving forever in the ghetto known as Adult Entertainment, but she can still stay true to her creativity and dance circles around her gimmick- prone Mainstream counterparts.
