Lovelace

Directed by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman.

2013. Rated R, 93 minutes.

Amanda Seyfried

Peter Sarsgaard

Sharon Stone

Robert Patrick

Juno Temple

Adam Brody

James Franco

Eric Roberts

Bobby Cannavale

Chris Noth

Hank Azaria

Chloe Sevigny

The most famous and, reportedly, highest grossing adult film of all time is 1972's Deep Throat. Yup, I said highest grossing. All you tykes used to getting your porn through the internet may not know there was a time when actual movie theaters were devoted to showing such films. Mind you, they tended to be in the seediest parts of town and frequented by shady characters trying not to be seen buying a ticket, but they were there. Due to the...um...talent of its star, this particular movie rose above the trappings of its genre to become a genuine national sensation. This is the story of that star, Linda Lovelace (Seyfried).

Lovelace sets out to tell the harrowing, yet redemptive tale of a woman who is coerced/forced into the adult industry by an abusive husband, but managed to break free of her circumstances and reclaim her dignity. It is fairly ambitious in its setup. The first act shows her and hubby Chuck Traynor (Sarsgaard) in an idyllic relationship even though what exactly he does for a living is shrouded in mystery. They love each other and that's all that matters. Act two completely flips the script, bringing Chuck's full creepiness to light by going over many of the same events from earlier in the movie, but exposing his ulterior motives. It then juxtaposes what's going on in their marriage with Lovelace's meteoric rise to stardom. Act three gives us her healing process. This is easily the most conventional part of the movie.

As performances go, we get some pretty good ones, here. Seyfried is a talented actress and continues to turn in impressive work. She captures the essence of a woman who isn't always sure what the right thing is. She's also not sure who she should be taking advice from. Seyfried embodies all of this. Peter Sarsgaard is a bit underwhelming as her husband. He is sufficiently shady early on. Throughout the movie he looks upon Linda as a gold mine and conveys this very well. However, his abusive side feels neutered. Juno Temple has a fun turn as Linda's pre-porn friend the free-spirited Patsy. The best performance of them all belongs to Sharon Stone as Linda's stuck-in-the-50s and ultra-religious mom. She seems to go through the most believable change of anyone in the movie and Stone is fabulous in her portrayal.

Getting back to the overall story, unfortunately, the first two acts work against one another and leave us disoriented. They're meant to show us both sides of the coin known as Linda's and Chuck's marriage. However, we become distrusting of the film's perception. The film itself appears to be questioning that of its protagonist. Events are mostly told from her point of view, but that vantage point is shaky, at best. How much of each side is truthful remains murky. I've no doubt that the real Linda Lovelace tell us that act two is by far the more accurate portrayal of her existence. The movie doesn't do a very good job setting up that way. It would've benefitted from more linear story-telling and layering the aspects of Chuck's personality better. As it stands, he comes off as two separate types within the same movie. He's one at the start of the film, but suddenly transforms into another. The overall effect is that he becomes more pathetic than menacing. He's not the villain the movie needs him to be. Yes, we see him abuse and exploit his wife, but due to the rosy presentation of the first act she seems complicit in her becoming a porn star. For those who have seen it, Eric Roberts presence here reminds us of the type of monster needed to make this work as he was just that in Star 80, the story of Playboy model Dorothy Stratten.

Once we fight through that muck, we must contend with the rushed nature of it all. Ninety or so minutes is not nearly enough to do a story such as Lovelace's justice. Things need time to develop, especially the characters, their relationships with each other, our relationships with them. In place of properly incubating those aspects, we're spoon-fed the important events then leap forward a number of years at what should be pivotal points in her life. These are the points that could've greatly enhanced the picture. There should be a substantial and satisfying process in going from just escaping an abusive marriage where your options are making more porn or going broke and being a happy, somewhat anonymous housewife with children. However, it's a process we never get to see. The end result is just suddenly a reality and we've no clue how she got there. I haven't even taken into account that there are still more intriguing events in Lovelace's life. For starters, Deep Throat was not the one and only instance of porn with which she was involved as the film supposes. Also ignored, except for a blurb at the end of the movie, she became an outspoken anti-porn activist. There were also issues with her second husband whom she would divorce after making allegations of abuse against him, as well. On the other side, people were basically lining up to call her a pathological liar. Including these things would add to our protagonist, and the movie as a whole, and give us a real opportunity to know her. Nearly every aspect of Lovelace needs fleshing out. What we have feels like the rough draft of what's going to be a bigger, better film.