The story of Linda Lovelace, the 1970’s porn star who achieved worldwide fame for her performance in “Deep Throat” may not be as familiar to the present generation as it was for the people who lived during that era. That places a great deal of pressure on the people behind this film to engage us and illuminate key elements of the story. Sorry to say, they don’t. Amanda Seyfried (“Mean Girls”, “Les Miserables”) delivers a solid performance of the young woman who married  Chuck Traynor (Peter Sarsgaard), a bullying, abusive man. And the movie works best early on, when the young, naive girl is lured to the pornographic scene. But as soon as the film leaves this early period behind, it begins to resemble an old-fashioned Hollywood biopic. It’s smoothly done, under  Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman’s direction, but the movie never penetrates (no pun intended) the thought process that made Lovelace write her own book, entitled “Ordeal”. And while Seyfried does a good job in the leading role, we still don’t know much about her character or the people who surrounded her. Despite its obviously impressive cast (including James Franco as Hugh Hefner) , “Lovelace” can only be described as a misfire.

Rating: 2/4