Review of Lovelace (2013) by David C — 11 Oct 2013

Lovelace is the tale of Linda Boreman, better known to the world as Linda Lovelace the star of the 1970s box office smash Deep Throat. For a brief time in the late 1970s pornography became fashionable amongst the American middle classes, with many (including Jackie O'Nassis, Jack Nicholson and Warren Beatty) attending public screenings whilst others would put on screenings in their homes. Deep Throat was to this culture what Richard Curtis films are to the British Film Industry and Linda Lovelace became a household name. In the years that followed she would claim she was abused and threatened at gunpoint to take part in the filmings.

There was a curiosity before seeing this, the ground here had already been very well covered in the excellent documentary Inside Deep Throat. However, where that film covered the obscenity trials and brought in themes of censorship, right to self-expression and artistic license Lovelace instead focuses solely on the story of Linda, specifically the one told in her first biography, Ordeal.

Lovelace sets out with an admirable mission, sadly the abuse that Linda doubtlessly went through is something that has either been met with scepticism or has been denounced as outright lies. The testimony of her co-stars, the passed polygraph test and the character references are enough to remove any doubt that Linda was certainly (and I'll put this kindly) pressured into these roles.

Where the film misses though is that it attempts to tell the story too simply. It uses a mirror narrative wherein the first and second halves of the film follow the same plot points, in the first it's all glamour in the second we see the abuse. This idea of a small town girl who was corrupted by a bad man is too simplistic, it borderlines on being insulting to the audiences intelligence. No woman deserves what Linda went through but to claim that she wasn't a troubled girl before she reached L.A. is doing the story a disservice. It also ends too simply, Linda is reunited with her family and is posited as some sort of feminist icon. This would be lovely but the truth is again much more interesting, Linda was much more conflicted and indeed briefly returned to working in pornography.

Amanda Seyfried is compelling as Lovelace, how accurate a portrayal of Linda Boreman it is, I couldn't say however it is a full realisation of the character written in the script. It is a brave performance and one that should see her appreciated as an adult actress and free her from teen twaddle such as Dear John. Peter Sarsgaard remains his unconvincing self, managing to just about get away with it here due to the work of the hair and make-up department - the young unemployed actors of Hollywood musn't be that good if this man keeps getting employment. The rest of the actors are reduced to playing caricatures with only Hank Azaria and Sharon Stone managing to bring something extra out.

Lovelace is a film to be admired; in these days where sexual imagery dominates our high streets and female stars can only express their maturity through an idea of promiscuous sexuality it has been easy to ignore the abuse and the exploitation of the sex industry. However, the direction from Friedman and Epstein is simply too flat and the telling of the tale too simplistic to make this a compelling film.