Somehow, clown porn became a legitimate subgenre with a distinguished history, from the Dark Brothers to Antonio Passolini. David Stanley gives us a unique twist: Not the happy clown, not the scary clown, but the sappy clown.

"Harlequin" is also significant because we might not see Kaylani Lei again, which makes ObiBong a sad clown.

The gist: After saving drunken clown Evan Stone's life, Kaylani takes him into her home and helps get him on his big floppy feet. He falls in love with her, naturally, but she has a boyfriend. Inspired by the dying words of his clown mentor, Evan tries to pursue true love.

Pros: Another great start with the opening credits. We get a little introduction and backstory in the form of crayon drawings, humorously rendered and revealed. Great stuff.

*I've always taken a contrary view and been down on Evan Stone's acting -- you can excuse it as "intentional" if you want; I thought he was pretty bad in "Pirates" -- but he actually takes his role seriously for a change. Stanley apparently was able to force him to tone down the mugging and facetiousness. In early scenes I thought his performance was very similar to the somber side of Robin Williams (not the highest compliment ever, but pretty damned good for porn). And then he broke out the Mork suspenders! I wonder if that was coincidence.

*Kaylani's work is quite good as well. She really does seem like a sweetheart you could fall in love with, plus she's beautiful even in an ordinary polo shirt. Stockings, stripper heels and cleavage aren't necessary to make her desirable. She has three scenes, including what amounts to a POV blowjob, which is really nice.

*It's always great to see Rayveness, who gives a solid acting performance and really makes ball-sucking look good.

*Although a little bit of wordiness could have been avoided in a couple of scenes, it's generally very well-written.

Cons: While I've praised the acting and the writing, the dialogue really does get sappy at times, especially during the crucial end scenes, with heavy broken-heartedness and such. The conceptual point of the movie appears to be that it's interesting to use clowns to express an extremely maudlin sentimentality -- and it is. But I'm not that sentimental a guy, so eventually it wears on me.

*That's a pretty porno nurse outfit on Kaylani. I would have gone for a more realistic uniform in a movie like this, but at least it wasn't made of latex.

*Stanley chooses "Pogo" as the nom de clown for the debauched, dying character he plays, a reference to John Wayne Gacy. I'm not sure if I think that's funny or not. OK, maybe a little.

*The obligatory Voodoo-Nicole Sheridan scene is in a flashback, and it's shot in a very stylized manner. But sepia-tone sex isn't that hot.

*The soundtrack is hit and miss. I like that Stanley's again trying to go beyond the usual porn music, but sometimes the Bugs Bunny-style cartoon/circus stuff is tiresome, and some of the overly lush romantic stuff didn't hit me right either. I did like the torchy opening song, though.

Bottom line: Well, it's easy to say that if you're into clowns or Kaylani you should see it, but I suppose that's obvious. I'm hesitant to recommend it for everyone, but it really does have first-rate acting performances, and even if it's a somewhat conventional story of temporarily unrequited love, it's very watchable. I liked it quite a bit.

Edited by - obibong on Jan 22 2006