Unfortunately for Lyne, it appears that a lot more people in America would rather talk and write about Lolita than actually see it. Part of the reason also had to do with the reluctance of American film distributors and reviewers to actually attach their name to the project. People knew that the film was controversial, hence they assumed that it must be explicit or salacious. As the filmmakers took pains to point out, though, this simply wasn't the case.
Some people think so.
By examining reviews and articles about the film, interviews with the filmmakers, and box office figures, it should be possible to see how a classic tragedy of American literature was turned into a literal tragedy in the reception of ambitious and artistic American filmmaking. It seems nearly impossible to separate and isolate Adrian Lyne's film into a pure text without reference to the larger issues of pedophilia, censorship, and controversy. In addition, there is the danger that approval of such a film could reflect negatively on the reviewer himself. Definitely positive or definitely negative reviews of Lolita are relatively hard to find. Marsden quotes statistics on sexual abuse of children and couches her response to the film in these terms.