Impact is a tour de force adult drama, with equal emphasis on both words, and both meanings of "adult." The story is told in an elliptical, Pinteresque way, hop-scotching backwards and forwards in time, with scenes often muddy until the end, when one line makes everything crystal clear.

After a quick, ominous prologue, the video begins with a passionate one-on-one between Tice Bune and Melissa Hull. In the post-coital conversation, we learn that he's been seeing her surreptitiously, assuring her that he's going to divorce his wife. As he leaves, she tells him to say hi to his brother and dad for her, and then impishly stops herself: "Oops, I haven't met them."

Bune is an author currently married to Julie Rage, who also works as his assistant. The first time we see her, tension is palpable between them as they coldly discuss his schedule. We then follow Bune's memory as he flashes back to a series of incidents, including: good times with Rage; a drinking argument with his brother and dad; his first meeting with Hill; a supposed - or maybe real - lesbian encounter between Rage and another woman; an argument with his dad; and an awkward moment when he retrieves some stuff from the house he shares with Rage, and the subsequent argument with her over their respective infidelities.

Impact stretches time like a rubber band, flashing back, flashing forward, bouncing between the past and the present, the factual and the imagined. The tension builds as the characters rebound against each other until the climax - hinted at in the prologue - ties everything together.

The main actors all seize the chance to show off their thespic skills. Rage is nom-worthy as Bune's girlfriend/wife/ex-wife-to-be, who changes from bitch-on-wheels to playful playmate depending on when in the timeline the scene is happening. Hill is also noteworthy as Bune's girlfriend with a past. Bune himself is a new face in adult; he has acting ability and a vulnerability that doesn't come across as wimpiness.

Randi Rage and Frank Towers don't have much screen time, but contribute a sizzling sex scene to the mix, with the staircase location accentuating their height difference. Mood lighting and offbeat camera angles (including a floor's eye view of a blowjob) add to the heat as they go through the muffdive/blowjob/doggie paces, ending with a copious protein wash on Rage's tits.

Julie Rage and Avalon have a fantasy lez turn in a smoky corridor, with creative editing and smoke blurring the differences between the two blondes. Rage-munching-Avalon cuts into Avalon-fingering-Rage, cuts into a tight close-up of Rage-in-ecstasy. Hot stuff.

In a pre-nom hat trick, Steel - working from his and Bill Majors' script - directs and edits scenes audaciously (an early Rage/Bune coupling goes from kissing to standing-doggie-facing-a-mirror in one quick edit), aided and abetted by superlative pre-nom camerawork by Barry Hartley.

Sex scene count: five, one of those g/g.