17 Days Became Life
Raised in a devoutly Christian home Linda (Amanda Seyfried) was a good girl who would do nothing really wrong, naively having fun. It is whilst dancing at a roller disco that Linda comes to the attention of bar owner Chuck Trainer (Peter Sarsgaard) who quickly courts and marries her. Chuck, a slippery character sets about exploiting Linda with a porn tape of her performing a sexual act on him, showing it to a couple of adult movie makers who cast the naive Linda in their movie "Deep Throat". But soon Chuck becomes jealous of others who start to dominate her life and not only does Linda become aware of this as he pimps her out she also becomes aware of how others are using her.
Hands up all those who have watched the notorious "Deep Throat" movie? I haven't but then I wasn't actually born until 1972 and so maybe I am not actually the target audience for "Lovelace" the biopic of actress Linda Lovelace. Then again I actually wonder who would be in the target audience for this movie because I am sure there are many who would watch "Lovelace" because of Amanda Seyfried not fully aware of the story of Linda Lovelace and not overly interested in her story. In a way part of me thinks that "Lovelace" is an attempt to deliver something along the lines of "Boogie Nights" but unable to capture the vibe and energy of that movie.
The thing is that "Lovelace" does have an interesting story of an abused woman. We see how Chuck ends up exploiting Linda, pimping her out to people, making her act in porn movies and physically assaulting her to make sure she made him money one way or another. We see how Chuck had an anger problem and was very jealous whilst Linda's mum being such a devout woman believed that Linda should obey Chuck and not question anything. It is a story of a naive woman who ends up used and abused by everyone from her husband to those in the industry eventually wisening up and having enough of her nightmare existence where even the cops couldn't see past that she was a famous porn star and in fact was a woman in need of help.
Now I have never seen anything featuring the read Linda Lovelace and so can't comment on the casting of Amanda Seyfried but she does a solid job and uncomfortably really delivers when the horror of the abuse becomes the focus of the movie. But for me it is Peter Sarsgaard who is the movie's star because he really delivers the jealousy and anger of Chuck as well as his downright sleaziness when it comes to how he treats Linda especially in the scene where he pimps out Linda to a room full of men.
What this all boils down to is that "Lovelace" ends up a solid biography of the famous porn star who was used and abused. But it isn't a story which comes to life on the screen despite being cleverly constructed with a variety of scenes from suggestively explicit to upsetting and emotional.
