Take a classic plot line involving a woman developing a split personality, add some rather spicy and unusual sex, and you have Sextasy, a somewhat intriguing look into one woman's fall into an alternative lifestyle full of random sexual encounters.

Alice has a relatively happy marriage, but she is disturbed by nightmares featuring a dark-haired woman involved in a number of exciting sexual acts. She retreats more and more into this alternative world, developing an alter-ego, Norma, who enjoys sex of any kind, any time. She starts picking up strangers, gets involved with phone-sex and finally seduces her husband's best friend. Her husband starts trying to trace Alice's past life, in order to find the key to her problems, and who Norma really is. The storyline, fantastic for an XXX film, is unusual and compelling, complete with a psychological angle, blackmail, love and deception.

The film does have its downfalls, however. Although billed as shocking and sizzling, the sex is Sextasy is fairly standard. It concentrates heavily on oral action, and there is a lesbian scene and some bondage. But none of it is very exciting. Part of this could be due to the storyline, in that it tries to represent the sex as aberrant, due to Alice's precarious mental state. But, we have the same positions, and some of the scenes are repeated throughout the film. There are no flaws, but just not much genuine passion.

Marianne Flowers performs well as Alice and is quite pleasant to watch. Most of the performances here are capable, which is a treat for a foreign title. The dubbing is amazingly good, compared to most, and the technical quality of Sextasy is quite high.

All in all, Sextasy is an interesting blend of storyline and production values. If you're looking for porn with a plot, your search is over! If the sex were only hotter . . .