This approach speaks to the controversy that dogged Lovelace's later life, in which she denounced porn of all forms, saying that she was coerced by gunpoint and other means into performing oral sex for the cameras of Deep Throat, not to mention dalliances into prostitution.
So, no, Lovelace is not the feel-good hit of the year. It is, however, a showcase for two unexpected performances.
As Linda, the "sexy Raggedy Ann" who became coast-to-coast (in)famous for a skill one wouldn't list on a résumé, Amanda Seyfried (Les Misérables) impresses in a way she never has; the role marks her entry into big-girl parts.
Meanwhile, Linda's husband-cum-nemesis, Chuck Traynor is played by the great Peter Sarsgaard, who is what he couldn't be even as the villain in Green Lantern: truly menacing. He's even more than that — he's terrifying. If the film didn't cop out with an abrupt and false ending, he might be in the conversation for year-end awards talk, as could Sharon Stone, unrecognizable as Linda's emotion-bottled mother.
Lovelace is far from bad, but one can't help but feel it did only half its job. We get very little sense of who Linda was as a person; her transformation into a porn princess is as ill-explained as other unsavory instances of her life are outright ignored. —Rod Lott
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