Lovelace

Rob Epstein & Jeffrey Friedman – 2013 – USA

You can sense that the cast of Lovelace wanted so much for this film to be the Oscar-winning prestige film of the year that it’s kind of sad.  It’s a great story, of course, and could have been handled in so many interesting ways.  Instead, it’s a fairly by-the-numbers bio-pic that leaves you feeling just blah rather than moved or impressed.  One problem is the intoxicating nostalgia for the 70s that filmmakers have a hard time overcoming.  The film wants to be a combination of What’s Love Got To Do With It? (1993) and Boogie Nights (1997) so badly that it gets bogged down in décor, wardrobe, slang and its disco/funk soundtrack at the expense of characters that seem capable of independent thought.  Amanda Seyfried is fine as Linda Lovelace, star of the breakthrough porn classic Deep Throat (1972); I don’t consider her part of the problem in the same way that the writing and direction are.  The film, in my opinion, has two things going for it; one being the performance of Peter Sarsgaard as Lovelace’s abusive husband.  The fact that this is the kind of thing that he apparently can do in his sleep is irrelevant; it’s captivating and legitimately scary in spite of the script’s clichés.  The second plus is the interesting approach of letting the story play out first as Linda portrayed her life to outsiders, and then again with the behind-the-scenes melodrama that she previously kept to herself.  That is intriguing but it’s not substantial enough to carry the film.  Sharon Stone gives a great performance as Linda’s mother.  You can feel her begging for her Oscar with every nuance, and she may deserve it too, but won’t likely get it for this lackluster movie.  Strangely enough, while Lovelace herself is remote and apathetic for most of the film, the most emotionally potent moment comes from Robert Patrick as her father, during a phone conversation in which he tries to express his visceral agony at seeing his sweet daughter gaining fame for the things she does in Deep Throat.  While trying to earn points as a feminist tract in its closing moments, I have my doubts as to some its historical authenticity.  For example, Lovelace is shown being interviewed on TV soon after leaving the porn industry, and is portrayed as strong and liberated.  In reality, though, she looked perpetually dazed and medicated at that time and was rarely without the dour Gloria Steinem at her side, working her like a puppet.