Candida Royalle makes erotic films aimed at women. I thought this movie would be good for my wife and I because my wife does not like traditional pornography. She wants more of a plot line, less overt cock shots and better acting overall. Soft-core is just too light for her and we've been stuck in an in-between zone for years figuring out what she might enjoy. We tried this film as a way of seeing if this works for her.

The Bridal Shower is about a woman (Nina Hartley) who is throwing a bridal shower for her friend. Her husband makes fun of the fact that she's throwing a bridal shower and then goes off to work. During the shower the five friends exchange gifts and make small talk. When one package includes some racier items the women begin to talk about problems they've had with their men and how they fixed it. There are five sex scenes throughout and I will detail them below.

1. The first recounting occurs with a woman and her Italian lover when they go for a picnic. She wants him to take his time and they begin to make out in the field. She keeps him from moving too fast and they proceed to both get naked and pleasure each other. They eat whipped cream off of each other, he performs oral sex on her and they have intercourse. My wife thought this was an okay scene and she could tell it was geared for women because she'd like to make love in a field, and thinks other women would.

2. The second sex scene involved a woman and her new boyfriend who has trouble staying hard with her. They decide to try something new and stop whatever they are doing when he gets hard. I didn't really get it, but it seemed to work for them. They began by kissing and the man performing oral sex on her. Then they stop and begin again, with more oral sex. Then she performs oral sex and they stop once more. They end with him taking her doggy-style and getting over his problem.

3. The third scene has a wife and man in bed. The woman thought they were going to stay in bed all morning, but he is up and getting dressed. She pouts that he doesn't want to have sex and there is some dialogue about a communication breakdown before she admits she wants to explore some fantasies. She pulls out a blindfold and he puts it on her. He then proceeds to undress her and kiss her all over before performing oral sex on her. Then he stands and pushes her to her knees and she performs oral sex on him and comes. They agree to try the blindfold again sometime soon.

4. The fourth scene involves the bride and her fiance with the woman throwing the shower (Nina Hartley). The bride admits they both fantasize about her and the scene begins with the two women cooking together before making out and performing oral sex on each other. The male watches for awhile and then joins in, with the two women sharing oral sex duties and the man having intercourse with both women.

5. The final scene involves Nina Hartley seducing her husband with a dance while wearing a veil. He then has oral sex with her and she with him before they have intercourse on the couch.

The overriding theme is that the men need to be taught about what to do in bed, and Nina Hartley's character thinks that her husband doesn't think she's sexy anymore or do anything with her. That is what leads to the recounting of each woman's story and before the final sex scene all of the women film themselves trying on lingerie and holding up dildos and pretending to perform oral sex on them.

The story was okay and my wife liked the theme alright. The acting was still a little stilted, but it wasn't all that bad. The problem for us was how dated the production was. At the beginning of the DVD it stated that the day of production was 5/8/03. On the product description it does state that the film was released in August of 2003, but the production year was 1997. I would think that the production year was closer to '97 based on what the characters were wearing and the decor in the film. It was just distracting to see such garish and tacky things, but that could just be us. I've seen lots of porn with dated production styles, but this was my wife's first experience with that.

The film runs 1 hour and 19 minutes and there are some additional features, such as a bio about Candida Royalle. There are no extra scenes in the special features.

We didn't feel that this was the best porn film we've ever seen, but my wife also didn't hate it. I wouldn't watch it again myself, but with her to get her in a certain mood I'm sure it will find its way back into our DVD player at some point.

I didn't love this when we watched it initially and my wife wasn't a big fan either. As I mentioned in the original review my wife wanted a softer porn, but soft-core either. Upon viewing this again about two weeks ago my wife began laughing at some of the clothes and decided this wasn't going to work for her. We still have it in the closet, but I don't think this will be viewed again.