Hard to feel sympathy for Linda in 'Lovelace'
In 1972, Linda Lovelace, born Linda Boreman, became an overnight sensation as the fresh-faced star of hardcore adult film ‘Deep Throat’, written and directed by Gerard Damiano.
Audiences flocked to this seedy tale of a girl with an impressive gift and the film became a box office sensation, thrusting pornography firmly into mainstream culture.
Lovelace worked the interview circuit to keep her star in the ascendancy and penned two salacious memoirs to sate public interest in her private life.
However, a sequel to ‘Deep Throat’ flopped and she drifted out of the spotlight until the 1980 publication of the book ‘Ordeal’, which levelled accusations of physical abuse and intimidation against her first husband, Chuck Traynor.
Having once been the poster girl for a lucrative multi-billion dollar industry, Lovelace became a figurehead for the feminist anti-pornography movement.
Directors Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman dramatise Lovelace’s meteoric rise in this lovingly crafted biopic.
The film begins in 1970 Florida, where Linda (Amanda Seyfried) is firmly under the thumb of her fiercely controlling mother Dorothy (Sharon Stone) and father John (Robert Patrick), who have both been shamed by their daughter giving birth out of wedlock.
Whenever Linda strays from the path of righteousness – arriving home five minutes past curfew, sunbathing topless in the back garden with best friend Patsy (Juno Temple) – Dorothy doles out the punishment.
Then handsome older man Chuck Traynor (Peter Sarsgaard) sweeps Linda off her feet and persuades her to leave home and marry him. Chuck soon becomes her manager and introduces Linda to the lucrative world of adult entertainment.
On set, Linda impresses director Gerard Damiano (Hank Azaria), producer Butchie Peraino (Bobby Cannavale) and co-stars Harry Reems (Adam Brody) and Dolly Sharp (Debi Mazar) but behind the scenes, Chuck physically and verbally abuses her to maintain his control over Linda, until she finally dares to break free.
‘Lovelace’ evokes the era in style, recreating groovy fashions and hairstyles, including a cameo from James Franco as Playboy mogul Hugh Hefner.
The structure of Andy Bellin’s script, though, proves the film’s undoing.
For the opening hour, there are only hints of Traynor’s malevolent control and Linda is portrayed as complicit in her own corruption. Once the film shows what was happening behind closed doors, it’s too late to paint Linda as a figure of sympathy.
Seyfried portrays Lovelace as an ingénue, whose cries for help went unheard, while Sarsgaard oozes charisma and menace.
Stone impresses in a sizeable supporting role as a matriarch, who refuses to harbour Linda and tells her coldly, “God gave you a husband, who provides for you.”
Early in the film, producer Butchie witnesses Linda performing her signature move for the first time and gasps, “We’re all going to win Oscars!”
Highly unlikely here.
Star Rating: 2½
