Film Review: Lovelace

Director:  Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman

After the sexual revolution of the late sixties, the world of pornography slowly reached a wider audience which reached its surprising crescendo with the release of the comedy porn film Deep Throat. It confirmed the rise of pornography into the homes of middle class America and moved it away from its reputation of being a seedy activity. The film Lovelace looks at the story behind its star Linda Lovelace (played by Amanda Seyfried) and her abusive relationship with husband Chuck Trainor (Peter Sarsgaard).

The film is told in two parts, the first being what Linda had originally told the publishing company about her life when writing her biography which is filled with how she was a very naive girl and was generally treated well by Chuck and the porn industry. The second half is what she later said really happened once she was away from the violent Chuck Trainor who raped and abused her whilst forcing her into porn and prostitution.

Linda Lovelace (Amanda Seyfried) on the set of the movie 'Deep Throat'

Amanda Seyfried is very good in the lead role, this is a very different role to anything she has done before and she takes to it well. The acting across the board is generally very good but its elsewhere that the movie falls apart. The plot itself is confused with the story generally being told twice and this makes it a tiresome film to watch despite it's short running time. The early parts of the film glamorize the entire industry before it then judges the characters that earn a living from it in the second half, the story of Linda Lovelace as so many interesting parts that were shunned from the film.

The ending was entirely rushed and a lot of her work before her death to help victims of domestic abuse and violence was marginalized to one line on the screen before the credits rolled. It felt like a voyeuristic look at her life that then decided to pull on our heart strings in the final 20mins which is questionable to say the very least.

1.5/4 Glamorizes the industry before trying to shoot it down, confused at best.