The just-debuted biopic about the Deep Throat star squanders the potential of its subject matter's with shallow storytelling.
At Tuesday night's Sundance premiere of their new biographical drama Lovelace, directors Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman said that they hoped their film would "fill in a crucial gap in the legacy of Linda Lovelace: her humanity." It's a noble goal, given that it's so easy to see Deep Throat's star in binary: either a porn icon (as she was after the film's wildly successful 1972 release) or an antiporn crusader (which she became with the publication of her 1980 autobiography Ordeal). Trouble is, Epstein and Friedman's biopic barely goes any deeper, avoiding the tough questions about her life in favor of an easy either/or scenario.
The film's first act plays like a half-hearted Boogie Nights Xerox (with some of the same music cues, even). Linda Boreman (Amanda Seyfried), a bored Florida girl, falls in love with Chuck Traynor (Peter Sarsgaard), an older man with an oily charm and a sketchy side. They eventually marry, but when money gets tight, Chuck talks Linda into trying porn acting. A vehicle is built around her particular gift for fellatio; it's called Deep Throat, and its unexpected success makes its star (rechristened Linda Lovelace) into a household name.