In the course of superficially examining its protagonist's sex addiction, this pastel-colored, curiously unsexy marital melodrama manages to suggest that perverse adultery can have the result of allowing an errant husband to return to his wife a new man. Stripper/call girl Wendy (Jennifer Sommerfield) crashes the bachelor party of her former fiancee, Charlie (Jonathan Emerson). Although her attempts to spoil the event are unsuccessful, she does catch the eye of Charlie's married friend, Joe (Kristoffer Tabori) Joe, who resents his wife Rita (Jane Kaczmarek) because she forced him to abandon freelance photography for more stable work. Hardened by her cash-and-carry experiences with men, Wendy initially enjoys taking a firm hand with Joe. And Joe doesn't mind having his time (and body) tied up by his experienced mistress, even though he's jeopardizing his suburban hearth and home with each kinky session. As the affair progresses, the whipping boy becomes the whip-wielder, turning the tables in his master-slave relationship with Wendy. Meanwhile, Rita starts wising up about Joe's irregular hours, and must decide whether her marriage is worth fighting for. Though it seems intended as an exploration of the quiet desperation of marital rancor, this film winds up a shallow Walter Mitty tale that polishes up the age-old Madonna-Whore complex for modern consumption. All Joe wants is to have both his picture-perfect wife and the attentions of a slut of above-average intelligence. Note to potential kinky adulterers: Sexual can't be cured by the occasional spanking. --Robert Pardi
