The Fate of Love (2011)

I fear that most porn fans would dismiss this Stormy Daniels (as writer-director) feature for Wicked Pictures as hopelessly sentimental, hardly the stuff of what passes for Adult Entertainment these days. But she stays true to her craft, fashioning a moving drama that one might say is too good for porn.

Fate in the title is the key element here, as coincidence is stretched perhaps to the breaking point. And the ploy of faith-based cinema, relying on miracles and faith, is hardly appropriate to XXX content after all.

I really got into the story and characters, and was pleased with the way Stormy controls and reports their outcomes. The star-crossed lovers are Wicked contract star Kirsten Price, a woman who's afraid to get into the dating pool thinking her secret health issue would be an instant turnoff, and Rocco Reed, stuck for a year at ground zero after the untimely passing of his wife (well-played by April O'Neil).

Matchmakers in the person of Kirsten's sister, the similar-looking beauty Alex Nicole, and Rocco's childhood friend Ash Hollywood, eventually get the duo together, in time for the key reveal and a most happy ending. Just as Frank Capra's many classics were later unjustly derided as representing Capra-corn, it is easy to dismiss Stormy's achievement, but for me it hits the spot, a pleasant throwback to sincere filmmaking in this age of facetiousness (see: Tarantino, Wes Anderson and the like).