Linda Lovelace rose to fame as a 70s porn icon for her role in the now legendary smash hit Deep Throat. But, as with many successful film stars, there’s more gloom beneath the glamour. As this biopic directed by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman portrays, Linda was a victim of a tumultuous relationship and a greedy industry. 

It’s Florida in the 70s and young Linda (Amanda Seyfried) goes out to a roller disco with her friend Patsy. When they take the stage to perform a sexy dance, Linda catches the eye of the sly Chuck Traynor (Peter Sarsgaard). They hit it off almost immediately and not long after, Linda moves in with him. Chuck then gets involved in some dodgy business, goes broke and starts to reveal his wicked nature. He coerces Linda to star in a porno, Deep Throat, for which she earned an enviable reputation for her oral sex skills. 

Here, the film jumps forward six years to Linda undergoing a lie detector test required by her memoir’s publisher. We then start to revisit the earlier events from Linda’s point of view, with Andy Bellin’s screenplay really coming to the fore. After witnessing her rise to success with only hints of her suffering, now the real drama kicks in, exposing the pain behind the porn. 

While the editing might be clever, the film’s vague focus, with its incessant cameos from real-life porn industry figures who add little to the story, fails to engage for the full 90 minutes. Appearances from the likes of photographer Thomas and Playboy’s Hugh Hefner only distract from the drama and eat up time that could be spent developing key characters like Linda’s devout catholic parents. This in turn detracts from the depiction of Linda’s suffering at the hands of her brutish husband. It’s a pity Amanda Seyfried’s powerful performance isn’t used to its full potential either. Despite her convincing portrayal of Linda as a victim, the film doesn’t venture deeply enough into her troubled relationship with her husband, for whom she obviously feels a complicated kind of love. 

If you can get past certain cheesy Hollywood elements, Lovelace sheds a welcome light on issues of domestic violence and human exploitation. But the crowd-pleasing drama could have been even better with fewer cheap tricks and unnecessary distractions.