Review of Lovelace (2013) by Dillinger P — 20 Apr 2014

After having quite a bit of intrigue with this film after watching the trailer, I have to admit, this film is enjoyable but due to being extremely similar in tone to The notorious Bettie Paige and Boogie Nights, its hard not to feel slightly deflated by this effort.

Thats not to say its a poor film, it gets quite a lot right, it just doesnt have what it takes to make it a classic. Lovelace follows the true story of Linda Lovelace one of the worlds first stratospheric porn stars, who stared in the widley known film, Deep Throat, this telling of her back story tells of how she met her boyfriend Chuck, played entertainingly evil by Sarsgaard.

We see how she gets roped into the porn industry for money only to come out rejuvinated and at war against the treatment of women within the industry. Seyfried does a decent job as the star, hamming it up when she needs to but playing it down some what, she just hasnt quite got the chops yet to be leading lady material, in fact were in not from quite a haunting performance and set of events put on her by chuck, the film would really buckle.

The soundtrack is ace, but it riffs on so many films that goes back to that golden era that its hard not to find too many comparrisons. Robert Patrick puts in a subtle and tight performance as lovelaces father, however he has so little to play with that I cant help but feel his talent slightly wasted.

Another issue with the film is its pacing, its keeps flinging you back and forth as if it was trying to be intelligent and show you things you couldnt possibly read between the lines to see, however, the hints of it are there in plain sight, there is no need to continually waft it about in our faces.

For all it does wrong though, it does look and go along at a decent enough level and some of the performances are enjoyable. Could have been a bit more, but its too close to other films out on the market years ago that it is hard to find originality around it.

enjoyable but not for everyone.