DVD Review: “O: The Power of Submission”

Literally a bodice-ripper, Adam and Eve's "O: The Power of Submission" succeeds (where too many other adult movies fail) in making BDSM relationships and dynamics seem accessible without being all educational about it. Its long scenes take their time, underlining the fact that the world the characters find themselves in is one of processes. Nina Hartley as narrator keeps the movie friendly. This movie is a little gem.

Read our review after the gap.
- GP

- - -

O: The Power of Submission

Studio: Adam & Eve
Director: Ernest Greene
Cast: Carmen Luvana, Nina Hartley, Kylie Ireland, Adrianna Nicole, Shayla LaVeaux, Justine Joli, Monica Sweetheart, Tiger Lilly, Angelene Black, Claire Adams, Evan Stone, Tommy Gunn, Van Damage

Review by Gram Ponante

"O" (Carmen Luvana) is a photographer for magazines owned by Ray (Tommy Gunn). Hartley explains via voiceover how their relationship has evolved in a script right out of your darker Harlequin romances.

Luvana is best when she is reacting, and her role as Ray's new toy gives her the opportunity to just be Carmen Luvana rather than have an awkward character grafted onto her, like that of a spy or a pirate. She sits still as Ray carefully snips off her undergarments in the back of a limo, then she is led into his mansion in handcuffs.

Once inside she is prepared by a team consisting of Kylie Ireland and Adrianna Nicole, who provide for the first time in any porn movie some insight into the tedium of a master/slave gig. "You don't have to follow all the rules," Nicole says, exasperated.

Fetish movies can take things so seriously, and I'm sure that is part of the appeal, but at no point does "O" seem like it is skimping on reality, even when depicting heightened roleplay.

Hartley appears in the flesh as a whipmistress and tethers Ms. O to a frame. The scene provides just enough pageantry to satisfy viewers who are into the rules (for example, there are several characters who just sit and watch the game unfold) as well as, for everyone else, plenty of Carmen Luvana naked.

Ireland and Nicole explain to O that, at this house, Luivana can be "used" by everyone, including the various attendants. The "sisters in slavery" prepare Luvana in a silver space-skirt (with butt plug) that matches theirs.

"Mostly we're decorative," Nicole says.

O is put through her paces as she gradually learns what it is to be Ray's slave. Then he throws in a curve ball by offering her to his brother Steven.

"A man doesn't own a thing unless he can give it away," Ray says. "The more I share you, the more I show you're mine."

Ray cedes mastery of O to his brother. O initially balks, continuing the game skepticism her character has displayed throughout the movie. "O" is filled with patient explanations that aren't so expository that they seem boring. Instead, the repetition of rules is central to these relationships.

That is not to say that the acting is not often porn-wooden, save for some surprising exceptions. While it is always a pleasure to watch Nina Hartley (she only shows up in roles these days in which she is completely on top of things), it is Tommy Gunn's flashes of sadness at certain points that throw light on the BDSM term "top drop".

A B story featuring the beautiful Monica Sweetheart as O's own model doesn't fare so well, and at times the story drags, but the images are as powerful as the sentiments, even if the vehicle sputters now and then.

In the end, "O"'s narrative is a thin envelope containing many heavy beliefs (sort of like "The Fountainhead" with a great ass) that never cuts the viewer short. Not once in "Dirt Pipe Milkshakes" did anyone say the line, "Everything you do for (Ray) out of love, I want you to do for me without loving me at all."

And the final scene demonstrates that no one could be a true sub who has a 17" PowerBook.

· Order: "O: The Power of Submission" (gamelink.com)
· "O: The Power of Submission" Gallery (adameve.com)

Previously: Porn Valley Dispatch Archive