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Friday, August 9, 2013
MOVIE REVIEW
Lovelace
The Making And Unmaking Of A Sudden, Reluctant Star
Amanda
Seyfried as Linda Lovelace in "Lovelace", directed by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey
Friedman.
TWC Radius
by
Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com
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Friday,
August 9,
2013
"Lovelace", directed by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, presents a resolute
heroine in the shape of Linda Lovelace, whose stardom as America's most
notorious porn actress in the 1970s was fleeting, before Ms. Lovelace, who
suffered extreme abuse from men on some film sets and from her husband, exited
stage left and became an anti-porn advocate.
Written by Andy Bellin "Lovelace" matter-of-factly lays out the path of Ms.
Lovelace, played by
Amanda Seyfried. "Lovelace" is an
authentic and jarring journey often punctuated with violence and exploitation by
Chuck Traynor (a chilling Peter Sarsgaard), Ms. Lovelace's husband. Mr.
Traynor, who as a character lurks ominously around almost every corner of
"Lovelace", is played so well by Mr. Sarsgaard that when we see the pitiful and
vulnerable sides of him we may recoil.
For all the intensity, violence and ruggedness Mr. Epstein and Mr. Friedman
don't demonize. They chronicle circumstances and predicaments.
Without much editorializing "Lovelace" charts the economic and physical control
of women by men, and here Ms. Lovelace is commoditized twice: as a "little girl"
forbidden access to money from her work and forbidden refusal to and by
men to entrance of her body.
Ms. Lovelace was certainly complicated (aren't we all?) and "Lovelace" frames
her mostly in that way. At times however, you feel there's a lack of depth
in the presentation of Linda Lovelace as a character for big screen treatment.
Is that because of the trade she dabbled in? I doubt it. I suspect,
more pointedly, it is due to the absence of a female writer and director.
Mary Harron, Jane Campion, Nicole Holofcener, Barbara Kopple, Callie Khouri or
Andrea Arnold would very likely have presented a deeper, more dimensional and
empowering treatment of Ms. Lovelace. The men who take this project on try
though, and, if nothing else, get the overall atmosphere right.
"Lovelace" captures its subject in her 20s and 30s and stardom with a cynical,
unromantic lens. In L.A.'s seedy porn industry stardom and staying power
(pun intended) are measured in body parts and money shots. Ms. Lovelace's
special "talents", chronicled in the infamous X-rated success "Deep Throat", are
worshipped by several shady bottom-line male producers and envied by Mr. Traynor,
who controls every part of Linda's life in the industry and out of it. Ms.
Lovelace, who was killed in a car accident in 2002, is a caged bird, if you
will, whose wings get ripped off but eventually gets to sing. The song she
sings is about her emergence and true blossoming if not total triumph over the
experiences that almost destroyed her during very difficult times.
Despite its grim tones "Lovelace" takes a breath away from the harshest glare
and horrific rape to bask in the fame Ms. Lovelace enjoyed, though all-too
brief, specifically at movie premieres. She falls in with Hugh Hefner (a
smug James Franco) at the premiere of "Deep Throat", but her appearance before
the audience, and by extension us, at least in the way it is shot, looks and
feels sad and hollow. And of course, that's the point. The
filmmakers capture the raw, unvarnished belly of a male-dominated, sexist
enterprise, and the fallacy of self-congratulation and celebrity surrounding it.
These days, porn, with the advent of the Internet, sometimes glosses up and
glosses over the
very same brutal types of exploitation and abuse
for women (and some men.)
As you'd expect, there's sex in "Lovelace" but it's the mechanical, unloving
kind. Call it business sex. Almost as painful as the relentless
abuse is the estrangement and tension Ms. Lovelace experiences with her strict
disciplinarian mother (an unrecognizable Sharon Stone.) Ms. Stone as a
casting choice is apropos in a sense, considering that 20-plus years ago her own
stardom amplified after a fleeting naked crotch shot in "Basic Instinct", a
much-contested incident still defended by "Instinct" director Paul Verhoeven.
Ms. Seyfried does nicely as a doe-eyed Ms. Lovelace and fine tunes her
performance as the one-time porn star grows into her own as an advocate for
women and anti-pornography. Playing a real-life person Ms. Seyfried
inhabits a woman never quite comfortable with the spotlight. It's worth
noting that Robert Patrick hits a sincere note, palpable as Ms. Lovelace's
loving father, the only man Ms. Lovelace is shown to be completely comfortable
with. Along the way Ms. Lovelace taps into the truism that there's far
more to her than just "skin" and surface beauty.
"Lovelace" broods and does so in a procedural manner. There's a
compactness and bluntness about the film's pace and events that evokes a
television movie set in the Seventies -- presumably the desired effect.
The film rides on the performances of Chris Noth as a worried investor in
Lovelace's films, and Mr. Sarsgaard, who with Bobby Cannavale can currently be
seen in "Blue
Jasmine".
One of the most touching and sad scenes in "Lovelace" is in a revelation: an
episode of beauty for the title star -- a photo shoot culminating in Ms.
Lovelace declaring, "you made me beautiful." It's one of the lone jewels
in an unpleasant experience, one worthy of a post-viewing shower.
Also with: Juno Temple, Adam Brody, Wes Bentley, Debi Mazar, Hank Azaria, Chloe
Sevigny, Eric Roberts, Cory Hardrict.
"Lovelace" is rated R by the Motion Picture Association Of America for
strong sexual content, nudity, language, drug use and some
domestic violence. The film's
running time is one hour and 38 minutes.
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