Rose

After her liberating and self-reflective experience with Grace (Ravyn Alexa), Nadine (Kristen Scott) has settled into her hectic corporate life and has even managed to find satisfying sexual companionship. On a whim, she reaches out to Grace, and the two old friends decide to catch up over a long weekend. But once Grace arrives, she discovers that Nadine’s life isn’t nearly as put-together as it seems, and her friend may not have healed from the scars of her past in the most healthy way. Can Grace and Nadine’s friendship survive Nadine’s inability to cope, or will the closeness they once shared be lost forever?

This sequel to last year’s romantic drama “Grace” reconnects the audience with old friends Grace and Nadine a few months after their life-altering Thanksgiving weekend. For Grace, it’s been mostly business as usual. She’s still a free spirit who continues to lead a non-traditional life that consists mostly of crashing on friends’ couches in between tawdry threesomes, and the freedom to come and go as she pleases. Meanwhile, Nadine lives by the call of her boss, who takes her hard work and perennial availability for last-minute assignments for granted. Nadine has managed to put herself out there and find sexual gratification, but something is definitely missing. When the two friends meet up again, their wildly different philosophies on life collide in passive/aggressive fashion. I’m a big fan of sequels; so, I was quite excited to revisit the characters of Grace and Nadine. I think writers Casey Calvert and Mark Logan took Nadine and Grace’s relationship in an interesting and logical direction, reminding the audience that “happily ever after” doesn’t mean “and they never had problems again.”

This story is about what the road to healing from trauma actually looks like, and how that road can be littered with the collateral damage of destroyed relationships. While I was very sympathetic towards Nadine in “Grace,” here I found her infuriating and heartless but painfully relatable. Scott does an even better job of bringing Nadine to life in “Rose” than she did in the predecessor, and Alexa plays off Scott’s performance very well. Audiences are going to ache for Grace in this movie.

The film opens by catching audiences up with Grace. She’s having a passionate and fun three-way with movie (and real-life) couple Abigail Mac and Zac Kurtz (side note: Kurtz looks shockingly similar to Dean Ambrose). There’s a ton of passion here. Everyone takes their time, and from the looks on their faces (especially Alexa’s), they all thoroughly enjoy themselves. There’s a nice train position that features Kurtz eating Mac’s box from behind while she lays on her stomach with her face buried in Alexa’s pussy. There’s also a great, wonderful sequence where Kurtz humps Alexa vigorously as she lays her head in Mac’s lap.

Nadine hooks up with Wes (Owen Grey) after work one evening, and holy smokes, this is a hot encounter. Nadine just melts into Wes from the moment he starts touching her, sending her trembling into ecstasy over and over. The cowgirl is very intense, and for a moment, I thought Scott’s body might physically shatter with pleasure. Then, the doggie happened, and Scott actually shattered with pleasure.

The final sex scene is an encounter between Nadine and Grace that benefits from two movies’ worth of anticipation. Not that we haven’t seen them together before, but their shared journey makes this sex more emotionally powerful than their previous couplings. Oh, my lord, watching Nadine sit on Grace’s face while leaning back to diddle her clit is magical, as is the way Nadine gazes into Grace’s eyes as she rubs her pussy gently. You know how romance novels always call sex lovemaking? That’s this.

This sequel is a nice culmination of a dramatic love story. Calvert and Logan envision a poignant story about self-discovery, pain, waywardness and forgiveness, which Scott and Alexa bring to life. Everyone involved needs to make some space in their awards cabinets.