Ostensibly just a Stacy Valentine vehicle for VCA near the end of her starring career, "Cold Feet" finds director Bud Lee in a thoughtful, romantic mood. Long ignored by critics, Lee's craftsmanship and empathy for his fictional characters is beautifully demonstrated by this minor, heartfelt feature.
Stacy plays Millie (though in the usual porn sloppiness a cab driver calls her Dottie at one point in the release version), a waitress at a small restaurant whose second thoughts about marrying her fiancée Tod (Ian Daniels), a cab driver, are reflected in the film's title.
Her romantic ups and downs depicted here are caused by misunderstanding and jumping to conclusions. False signals indicate to her that Tod is unfaithful, while the viewer is well aware that he's not. Bud doesn't play the complications for comedy or slapstick but rather adheres to a strictly Romantic approach, aimed at the Couples market and most satisfying to me as seen 16 years after.
Story's time frame is indeterminate, but the cab fares listed on the side of Tod's yellow beast indicate it's taking place around 1984. Flashbacks set in 1948 for the restaurant's owner Joel Lawrence and Stacy's fellow waitress Shanna McCullough, depicting sexual flings they had long ago help flesh out the story, and only a change in hair style and color are used to suggest the two characters' aging over the years, avoiding the hokey "old age makeup" pitfall of so many movies.
Lee appears in the opening diner scene as a customer overhearing the gals' chatting about romantic problems, and he sets the tone personally by advising Millie to consult her "Spirit Animal" (inner being) for guidance. This mystical theme is continued by an uncredited recurring character Madame Truffaut, a Black fortune teller who adds a cryptic note to the proceedings, besides the well-placed movie buff reference.
I've suffered through several scriptless Lee videos recently, of the popular all-sex vein, and appreciate it when he has such a fine one as this screenplay by Griffin Mill. It posits Millie as an aspiring novelist, stuck in a waitress gig partially because she hasn't the drive or confidence to complete projects (her impending marriage, for example). Mark Davis stops in the restaurant and chats her up (ultimately ending up in the sack with Millie), encouraging her to pursue her dreams as he is a successful writer himself.
With more than the requisite sex scenes taking up the running time, natch, "Cold Feet" manages to develop concisely the main characters and convey true feelings about their fate. By the time Millie has cleared up her problems misjudging Tod and they get it on for a predictable happy ending in the sack, this miniature saga about "little people" is wholly satisfying and never condescending. And blissfully, it is sincere filmmaking, minus the facetiousness that permeates both Adult and Mainstream cinema in the 21st Century.
Valentine is a winning actress and sexual performer, convincing both in toned down look early in the proceedings, progressing to statuesque knockout by fade-out. I was glad to have spent an hour and a half with these characters, and look forward to visiting the rest of Bud Lee's catalog of overlooked gems.
