Quartile rating: 6/10 · 1 rating
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.
Lovelace covers familiar biopic territory without distinguishing itself structurally or visually. The dual-perspective narrative device (showing events twice from different viewpoints) is moderately interesting but not fully exploited. Amanda Seyfried commits to the role and elevates the material, with solid support from Peter Sarsgaard as the menacing Chuck Traynor. The cinematography is competent but unremarkable period pastiche. The story of exploitation and reclamation has been told more compellingly elsewhere, and the film struggles to reconcile its exploitation-era aesthetic with its serious subject matter. The ending offers some emotional resolution but feels rushed given the weight of what preceded it.