Lovelace

Plot synopsis:
In 1970, 20-year-old Linda Lovelace (Amanda Seyfried) is living with her overbearing parents in Davie, Florida. While out dancing one night with her best friend, Patsy (Juno Temple), she attracts the attention of Chuck Traynor (Peter Sarsgaard), and the two soon develop a serious relationship. He is much older than her and begins teaching her how to perform sexual acts, which she is initially thrilled about. After breaking a curfew one night, Linda is slapped by her mother (Sharon Stone), so she decides to move out and live with Chuck, later marrying him. During a party, Linda watches one of Chuck's homemade porno films for the first time and tells him that good girls like her do not do stuff like that.
Six months later, Linda bails Chuck out of jail for soliciting prostitution, which he refuses to talk about with her. Desperate for money, he later persuades Linda to become a pornographic film actress and she soon begins working on the film Deep Throat, where she first uses her stage name, Linda Lovelace. The movie becomes a huge hit, raking in over $30,000 at the box office in its first week. After it becomes a worldwide phenomenon, Linda is interviewed by a variety of print and radio reporters and becomes the subject of late night television humor, much to the disgrace of her estranged parents. Her life is seen as exciting and glamorous: she poses nude for photoshoots and attends swanky parties weekly. During a private screening in Los Angeles, Hugh Hefner (James Franco) convinces Linda that she has the potential to be more than a porn actress.
In the second version of events, Chuck's violent nature is gradually exposed and Linda's life is revealed not to be as perfect as it seems. He chokes Linda during sex and refuses to stop when she asks, claiming it to be "passion", and forces her into prostitution at gunpoint. Linda visits her parents to ask if she can move back for a while after she reveals that Chuck has been hitting her, but her mom says no, tells her to go home and be a good wife, since she must have done something to deserve his abuse. It appears that Linda no longer loves him like earlier but has no other choice. After Chuck learns that Linda has been discussing a new salary with the movie's director, Gerard Damiano (Hank Azaria) without telling him, he punishes her by making her shower in freezing water.
When Deep Throat becomes a hit, Chuck tries to persuade Linda to do another porn film but she refuses. He then takes her to a party and forces Linda to participate in a gang bang at a hotel, again at gunpoint, for the money instead. She attempts to escape from him that night but he catches her and ends up sleeping on top of her so she cannot try again during the night. The following day, she secretly meets up with Anthony Romano (Chris Noth) and tells him she wants out of the porno business, revealing the facial bruises and cuts inflicted by Chuck. Disgusted, Romano has her checked into a private hotel while he and his bodyguards whip Traynor for abusing Linda and for the $25,000 he owes.
Six years later, following her divorce to Chuck, Linda marries Larry Marchiano, moves to Long Island and has a son by him. She later takes a polygraph test before publishing her autobiography Ordeal, which details years of Chuck physically and sexually abusing her, as well as taking all of her earnings. Linda appears on Donahue, with her distraught parents breaking down in tears while watching her on TV. A few days later, the Marchianos travel to Florida for Linda to reconcile with her parents.
Closing captions reveal that while Deep Throat made over $600 million worldwide, Linda only earned $1,250 because Chuck controlled the money like he controlled everything. Ordeal went on to sell out three printings and, for 20 years, Linda spoke out against pornography and domestic violence. Chuck later went on to marry Marilyn Chambers, another porn actress. Linda died at age 53 from injuries sustained in a car accident in 2002 and Traynor suffered a fatal heart attack three months later.

Tags: flashback, violence, pornographic, home movie

Review:
However, the primary faults of "Lovelace" lie not in what they left out, but in a questionable storytelling structure where the filmmakers obviously tried to be too clever in their narrative.Basically, the first half of the film chronicles a 21-year-old, naive Linda Boreman (Amanda Seyfried) who lives with her strict, Catholic parents (Robert Patrick and a shockingly deglamorized, unrecognizable Sharon Stone) in Florida.
Eventually, Traynor coerces her into performing sexual acts on complete strangers for money before taking her to audition for pornographic movies.From here, the film chronicles the making of the notorious "Deep Throat", the rise of Linda Lovelace, and does more than hint at the unexpected cultural impact the film creates.Halfway through, the film makes the mistake of jumping ahead six years later (I guess circa 1980), and showing a visibly disheveled Linda taking a lie detector test administered by a publisher (Eric Roberts) in order to assess the validity of her marital abuse claims in her new autobiography, "Ordeal".
Seyfried, whom we know better as ingénues in musical films like "Mamma Mia" and "Les Miserables," how could she pull this daring stunt off?"Lovelace" tells of how young and pretty Linda Boreman, from a strict Catholic family, unlikely met and married a sleazy guy named Chuck Traynor.
First, she goes along with Chuck's wild idea to make a her a porn actress, exploiting a certain extraordinary talent of hers which would be the central theme of a little porn flick entitled "Deep Throat." She actually enjoyed the heady success of this stardom as Linda Lovelace, for a while at least.In a sudden change of pace, the second half of the movie showed how Linda was abused by her husband, physically, mentally, sexually, financially.
But he looked like a creep even in that scene where he first met with Linda's parents (portrayed by Robert Patrick and a completely unrecognizable Sharon Stone.)I think the main problem of the film was in its story telling.
An impressive cast lending their talents to a fascinating story, Lovelace brings Amanda Seyfried, Peter Sarsgaard, Sharon Stone, Robert Patrick, Chris Noth, Adam Brody, James Franco and Eric Roberts together to portray characters in the life of Linda Lovelace, a one-shot porn actress that made headlines back in 1972 as star of the blue movie, Deep Throat.Amanda Seyfried plays Linda, a shy and fairly innocent young girl who falls for Chuck (Peter Sarsgaard) , a mostly manipulative manager/pimp that eventually becomes Linda's husband.
Chuck woos the younger Linda using his charm and the alluring freedom of his adult lifestyle to eventually bring Linda to a point where she moves out of her home.The inexperienced Linda is comfortable enough to have Chuck film her giving him oral pleasure and Chuck takes his Super 8 home movie to Butchie Peraino and Gerry Damiano (Bobby Cannavale and Hank Azaria) who are so enthralled with Linda's oral sex talents that they immediately get producer Anthony Romano to provide the funds to make a film that will eventually become Deep Throat.We get a few topless scenes of Seyfried emulating the famous porn star of the era and enjoying her fame until everything falls like a house of cards due to Chucks violent manner and his insistence that Linda have sex with multiple partners for the purposes of his own financial gain and notoriety.The film takes us beyond the filming of Deep Throat and we watch as Linda copes with how the film put a strain on the relationship with her parents and through her book deal and talk show circuit appearances where she vehemently denounced pornography.Laden with a talented cast, Lovelace fails to either have audiences find fault or fall in love with our title character.
The first film is a rather light 70s set piece about the porn business very reminiscent of the film Boogie Nights, with great performances by Mama Mia's Amanda Seyfried (holding her own even though she is much too pretty to play Linda Lovelace) as well as Peter Sarsgaard as her creepy husband who has no qualms about prostituting his wife out for a buck.
Expecting to see something that resembled more of a Linda Lovelace biopic, I must admit that I was a bit disappointed to find out that "Lovelace" only examines a small portion of her life and the abusive relationship with her husband during the making of 1972's "Deep Throat" (arguably the most popular adult film of all time).
But as I started watching this, my disappointment only grew as I witnessed what directors Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman had done with this material (material which had such dark dramatic potential) utterly mangling the construction of the story and, to add insult to injury, transforming this film into nothing more than a by-the-numbers, woman empowerment, Lifetime channel movie of the weekwith nudity.Not saying that Amanda Seyfried (who plays Linda Lovelace) and Peter Sarsgaard (who plays her husband, Chuck) don't do their best with the material given.
And with the help of some excellent supporting work from the likes of Sharon Stone, who is almost unrecognizable as Linda's mother and Bobby Cannavale who plays a producer, the acting is the best part of this movie.OK, so yes, James Franco is laughable as young Hugh Hefner, but the real black eye on the face of "Lovelace" has to be Epstein and Friedman's direction.The following is a rundown of how Epstein and Friedman nearly single handedly ruined this movie; act by act: Act One: Cramming an insane amount of old television footage down our throats with the sole purpose of making sure we (the audience) realize that this movie is set in the 70's, the first 40 minutes of "Lovelace" tells the story of how Linda and Chuck meet, fall in love and how Chuck introduces Linda into the world of porn.
Andy Bellin wrote the screenplay for this biopic-type film directed by both Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman which relates the life of Linda Lovelace, known as the queen of adult porn for her controversial role in the 1972 film DEEP THROAT and the writer of the confessional book ORDEAL which gave the public the 'real story' behind the girl who was Lovelace before she died in 2002 - the girl who is used and abused by the porn industry at the behest of her coercive husband, before taking control of her life.
The film is basically divided into two parts - the fantastical story of a freckled face 'innocent' girl of strict upbringing who rises to fame by being the first porn star to perform fellatio on the screen and gained fame and stardom, and the second part of how this naïve girl was the victim of the abusive husband and porn industry until she gained the courage to marry and have a family and step out of the spotlight of her fame in Deep Throat.And the manner in which the two views on the same girl are interconnected in the film is the strong point of the movie: the technique of show 'reality' while simultaneously depicting 'fiction' works well.
The cast is strong: Amanda Seyfried does a star turn as Linda Lovelace (aka Linda Susan Boreman aka Mrs. Larry Marchiano) though much of Lovelace's life is omitted (her liver transplant, her messy divorces, her other films, etc); Peter Sarsgaard is excellent as the smarmy drug-addled Chuck Traynor, the man who convinced Lovelace to enter porn; Sharon Stone and Robert Patrick as her rigid parents; Juno Temple in the thankless role as Lovelace's only friend Patsy; and the porn guys - Chris Noth, Bobby Cannavale, Hank Azaria, Adam Brody as the well-endowed Harry Reems (though that of course is never filmed), Chloë Sevigny as a Feminist Journalist, James Franco as Hugh Hefner, fellow porn star Dolly as portrayed well by Debi Mazar, Wes Bentley, Eric Roberts, and Ron Pritchard as Sammy Davis Jr.!
The makers of this film may have gone a bit too far in portraying Linda Boreman/Lovelace as a completely innocent girl-next-door who just happened to fall in with the wrong guy and his crowd, but I can see how that was hard to avoid.Considering the subject matter, there is very little graphic sex/nudity, and it was obviously wise to avoid making an admonitory bio-drama about a porn star into a porno film in its own right..
I wanted to watch the original 2005 documentary Inside Deep Throat which delved behind the porn sensation but unfortunately I couldn't find it anywhere.I was glad when I heard about a biopic on Linda Lovelace played by one of my fav, Amanda Seyfried.
An ensemble cast of James Franco, Sharon Stone, Robert Patrick, Juno Temple, Chloe Sevigny, Wes Bentley upped the ante intriguing me.More than a biopic, Lovelace felt more like a commercial movie made to cash in on less drama and more on the concept of Deep Throat with some nudity thrown in.
Lovelace does handle marital abuse issues well, you do get to see how Linda was abused, verbally, beaten and f**cked to do her husbands bidding ending in porn and even prostitution and how Sasgard's initially charming Chuck turned into monster in the second act.Amanda Seyfried seemed to me like the wrong choice and was less like her real life counterpart but nonetheless gorgeous.
The film also depicts Linda's personal life and the abuse by Traynor that she went through and her courage to speak out against spousal abuse and the porn industry.I admit I have never seen Deep Throat and not very familiar with Lovelace's story.
"Inspired by" the lurid true story of Linda Lovelace (Marchiano-Traynor-Boreman), this is a rather sanitized portrait of the "Deep Throat" actress, whose appearance in the 1972 pornographic blockbuster made her a household name and movie-industry punchline.
Her endless self-victimizing tales, such as her porn shoots being filmed with a gun LITERALLY pressed to her head(!), and her becoming the most famous porn star in the world only out of fear that her family might be murdered(?), run contrary to the reports of almost everyone else she worked with, who considered this woman - who'd previously had sex with a dog on camera (oh yes, THAT wasn't mentioned in the film, was it?)- to be an inveterate liar and a 'sexual super-freak'.In her private life too, every time any of her apparently happy marriages ended, she played the victim all over again and alleged abuse from pretty much every man she was ever involved with right up until the end of her life - including Larry Marchiano, her 'happy ending' at the end of this film.Lovelace was a very sad character wanting more than anything approval, sympathy and attention and apparently just said whatever she thought a 'good girl' should say in whatever circles she moved.
As her fellow adult actress Gloria Leonard said, "This was a woman who never took responsibility for her own choices made, but instead blamed everything that happened to her in her life on porn." The story of her need to present herself in such a way, why she did it and the fall-out such behaviour caused to everyone else around her would have made a far better film.I liked the 70s period detail, and there are some funny lines from Boardwalk Empire's Bobby Cannavale and Hank Azaria, but they're way out of place in such an oppressive, lurid nightmare fantasy depicting all the Boogie Nights-style shenanigans as simply abuse.
Sharon Stone gives an Oscar worthy role as Lovelace's mother, Amanda Seyfried delivers a strong central performance as the most famous porn star in history and Peter Sarsgaard plays the abusive maniac husband/pimp Chuck Traynor.
The story of Linda Lovelace, who is used and abused by the porn industry at the behest of her coercive husband, before taking control of her life.The movie is simply awful and why it was made is beyond me.Lovelace was an unattractive trailer park chick who happened to be at the right place and right time with a trick of the throat that today every porn star does.And why the trick is a claim to fame since it hurts guys when its down, is fantasy and not reality.
That's where we meet Chuck, who seems like an okay guy at first, but Linda's relationship with him only brings on more problems for her as he thrusts her into the porn industry, starring in a movie called Deep Throat.
It feels like a documentary, a bad one sometimes, not being able to send enough emotion towards the female protagonist, even when she was in deep pain.It's good if you want a graphic representation of Linda Lovelace's life and career, but as a movie, it's a bit of a letdown, for me at least, although I enjoyed Amanda's performance..
Before watching this movie I'd never seen "Deep Throat" (still haven't) and yet even though I didn't really know what the real Linda actually looked like, when I recognized Amanda Seyfried as the lead/title actress, I went huh?As so many other reviewers have stated, Amanda is way too pretty and innocent looking for the role.
For this reason, possibly the story focuses more on the emotional aspects of the trauma Linda Lovelace faced through her relationship with Chuck Traynor and dealing with the realities of becoming so famous for something as dubious as appearing in "Deep Throat." Had they used a different actress with harder edges, like Lindsay Lohan, the movie may have veered toward the grittier aspects of the 70s porn industry, but with Amanda Seyfried in the role the producers managed to make even a scene showing the filming of one of the "Deep Throat" scenes seem sanitized, in other words, "Lifetimed- up." Sharon Stone appears, unrecognize-ably as a brunette in the role of Linda's mother.
Chuck would beat Linda all the time they'd have sex, because he was a sadist and this was the only way he could do it, they sugarcoated their relationship so much in this movie it was really better if it didn't exist.I think the real Linda Lovelace doesn't deserve to have her story twisted that much just so the public gets sad about what happened to her because they don't know even half of the things she went through.
Becoming a celebrity for her Deep Throat porn films where she starred as Linda Lovelace, she became known for that alone, even if she actually spent only 17 days in the pornographic industry.So, if you wanted to see Amanda Seyfried naked and doing the nasty, you're out of luck.
'Lovelace' is about the 'first' scripted pornography film, aka 'Deep Throat,' which was made in 1972 and follows the story of the star Linda 'Lovelace.' It's actually more based on her book, 'Ordeal,' the title of which tells you more what this movie is about.If you watched 'Boogie Nights' and enjoyed the light-hearted look at the 'adult entertainment' industry and are hoping for something similar, then you may be in for a shock.Linda falls for a charming guy who, at first, is her knight in shining armour.
To understand better this movie is proper to see the original Deep Throat from 1972 and the documentary from 2005 Inside Deep Throat.This is a modern adaptation of the '72 picture and shows the hard life of Linda Lovelace from the moment when she meets her husband Chuck who will became her manager and proves to be very mean and authoritative with her in the moment when he discovers that she might be a good actress in the adult industry and she can bring him a lot of cash and fame.
The parent of Linda played by Sharon Stone and Robert Patrick gave some extraordinary acting, sadly the rest of the cast feel flat in there performance.The Story is simple as well as the shooting something that really fit to the move, But I think that if directors Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman have taken another approach to the story focusing more on Linda Lovelace and less on the before and after deep throat the movie would have been much more than what it really is..
That is enough to make this film worth watching.They went all out on the stars for the film: Amanda Seyfried as Linda, Peter Sarsgaard as Chuck, the husband who used her, Sharon Stone, Robert Patrick, Chris Noth, Hank Azaria, Chloë Sevigny, James Franco, and a lot of cameos that make it seem like a documentary.One is amazed at her naiveté.
Lovelace Before pornography was peddled to women as shoddily written Twilight fan-fiction, it was shown to men on 16mm film.Either way, as this biography proves, both were profitable.Straight-laced Linda Boreman (Amanda Seyfried) and her girlfriend (Juno Temple) take a go-go dancing gig at a roller rink.On stage, Linda attracts the attention of Chuck Traynor (Peter Sarsgaard) who goads her into introducing him to her parents (Sharon Stone, Robert Patrick), confident they will approve of him.Chuck's charm does its work, and soon enough they're married.Impressed with her oral skills, Chuck lands Linda the lead in a porno titled Deep Throat.A mainstream success, Linda's life is commandeered by Chuck and navigated into a world of forced prostitution and physical abuse.Erupting with cameos, this stylistic take on Linda's sad sex-life is well acted, cleverly directed and brutally detailed.Furthermore, who wants to watch a porno about Watergate?
The documentary "Inside Deep Throat" actually was more in-depth and meaningful in it's story telling than "Lovelace" is, and that's pretty sad.In the end, I did learn more about Linda Lovelace than I had known before this film but I had to endure too many gratuitous sex scenes to make it worth the while.Amanda Seyfried did turn in a wonderful performance while Peter Sarsgaard came across far too cheesy to be taken seriously but then again that can be said for every role he's ever played.
Amazing biopic with Amanda Seyfried as Linda Lovelace the world's first porn star with a great cast, noticeable performances from Peter Sarsgaard and Sharon Stone but a really well made extraordinary film really gives an insight into her relationships and abuse she had to suffer the whole film deals with the taboo of porn.