‘Lovelace’ DVD Review: An Emotionally Difficult and Messy Ride

Lovelace is not an easy film to watch. The Linda Lovelace biopic is a tale of fame, violence and betrayal set against the backdrop of the 1970’s sexual revolution. While nearly everyone has heard of the 1972 porn Deep Throat, not too many of those individuals are familiar with the story of the film’s star, Linda Lovelace. Even though her time in the adult film industry was short, it was an incredibly horrific tale that transpired.

The film flows through Linda’s (Amanda Seyfried) relationship with her overbearing parents (Robert Patrick and an unrecognizable Sharon Stone) to her courtship and marriage with her abusive husband (Peter Sarsgaard), the man who introduced her to the porn industry. From the filming of Deep Throat throughout the exploitation that followed, Lovelace doesn’t fully scratch the surface of the horrific experience Linda truly had.

The main issue I had with this film was that was that it jumped back and forth with its narrative. Sometimes I can appreciate this in films where there is a clear reason for doing this – such as Cloud Atlas. A scene that may have been subtle in it’s relevance suddenly becomes the connecting piece in a story – thus calling audiences back to it for additional clarity. However, that wasn’t the case in Lovelace. We jump all around Linda’s story from her reflecting back on it, to her living it, to her taking a lie detector test to prove her claims of abuse. I think it would have been a more emotionally upsetting and sequential film had we started with the polygraph test and had Linda detailing the journey that transpired throughout the film.

The messy script aside, the Lovelace cast is nothing short of star-studded. Amanda Seyfried, Peter Sarsgaard, Hank Azaria, Adam Brody, James Franco, Sharon Stone and more come together to create this tail. As for the film’s true star, Amanda Seyfried has a delicate innocence to her here – it is almost reminiscent of Alice in Wonderland. She does as much as she can with the screenplay – but unfortunately that’s not enough for this film.

Overall, it’s still an emotionally difficult film to watch even though with a story like Linda’s – this film doesn’t seem nearly as intense as it really should. This film just doesn’t do the true story justice with this unnatural and superficial script.

Grade: C
Review By: Emma Loggins