Lovelace
RADiUS-TWC | Release Date: August 9, 2013 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
51
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 37 Critic Reviews
Positive:
9
Mixed:
24
Negative:
4
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
ObserverDrew GrantAug 6, 2013
Lovelace may be a movie about a porn star, but it’s not pornographic. At least, not sexually. Read full review
80
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierAug 8, 2013
While “Lovelace” falters a bit, it remains a memorable, unflinching indictment. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleAug 9, 2013
Even if a quarter of what Boreman claimed was true, she had a lot more coming to her than a sympathetic hearing and much prettier actress playing her onscreen. She practically deserved an apology from the male sex, and that, in a way, is what this movie is. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperAug 9, 2013
Perfectly capturing the tenor of the times and the grimy underworld of the porn industry, Lovelace is the kind of movie you’ll appreciate and respect but never enjoy. Read full review
70
The DissolveNathan RabinAug 8, 2013
Lovelace finds a fresh take on familiar material, but the film is also distinguished by its focus and intensity. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyApr 23, 2013
Given all the ways a project like this could have gone wrong, the result is surprisingly good on several fronts, beginning with a shrewd structure that fosters an intelligent dual perspective on the public and private aspects of the Deep Throat phenomenon. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliAug 12, 2013
The actors can't be faulted for any of Lovelace's missteps. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsAug 8, 2013
Cameo appearances by everyone from James Franco (as Hugh Hefner, putting the moves on Lovelace at her own premiere) to Hank Azaria (as a film "investor") dot the grimy landscape. Read full review
63
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreAug 6, 2013
It’s too short to do justice to its subject, but in an era when young women build careers and get rich off “secret” sex tapes that somehow make their way onto the Internet, maybe that’s all this subject deserves. Lovelace was but an aberration, an amusing, then quaintly grim footnote on our way to a Paris Hilton/Kim Kardashian future. Read full review
60
The TelegraphDavid GrittenAug 22, 2013
Lovelace tells a difficult story creditably, yet its period detail has the effect of distancing the story, and its heroine remains an enigma. Read full review
60
Time Out LondonAnna SmithAug 21, 2013
Seyfried is fine but has little character depth to work with: Sarsgaard impresses with a more complex character, as does a barely recognisable Sharon Stone as Linda’s bitter mother. If only the whole film were as well-rounded. Read full review
60
The New YorkerDavid DenbyAug 19, 2013
Peter Sarsgaard, with an oozing voice and a wolfish smile, is a terrific creep, and Hank Azaria and Bobby Cannavale have fun overplaying porn-world figures, but the movie, at its center, remains unawakened. Read full review
60
EmpireKim NewmanAug 19, 2013
An entertaining, provocative biopic with good performances and many strong scenes — but it still doesn’t feel like the full Lovelace story. Read full review
60
The New York TimesManohla DargisAug 8, 2013
There’s a lot in this story about victimization and agency that Mr. Epstein and Mr. Friedman never satisfactorily address. It’s perhaps inevitable that they seem happier when nothing yet feels at stake, including during the production of “Deep Throat.” Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzAug 8, 2013
Despite a couple of powerful performances, a big-name cast and an ambitious structure, Lovelace...feels oddly half-baked, almost unfinished. Read full review
60
The GuardianDamon WiseApr 23, 2013
Though Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman's handsomely mounted period piece evokes the era with impressive detail, Lovelace's journey remains difficult to tell. Read full review
58
The PlaylistJessica KiangAug 8, 2013
Despite Seyfried’s gameness, we come away a little deadened from the experience and knowing precious little more than before about the person who inhabited the body, the life and the throat of Linda Lovelace. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubBen KenigsbergAug 7, 2013
Seyfried expertly balances the girl-next-door star power that made the real Lovelace an unlikely casting choice with a more subtle strain of fear; Sarsgaard is as terrifying and hiss-worthy as he’s been since "Boys Don’t Cry." Read full review
58
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallAug 6, 2013
The pleasures of Lovelace are in its casting choices, allowing a brio trio like Sarsgaard, Hank Azaria and Bobby Cannavale to sleaze up a pivotal scene, and an unrecognizable Sharon Stone to go full Jessica Lange as Linda's shamed mother. Read full review
50
USA TodayClaudia PuigAug 10, 2013
Lovelace is a lackluster, skin-deep biopic. Read full review
50
Boston GlobePeter KeoughAug 9, 2013
Epstein and Friedman may have the best of intentions, but in the end they’re exploiting Lovelace, too. Read full review
50
NPRMark JenkinsAug 9, 2013
A 90-minute biography can't include everything, of course. But Lovelace comes on like an inquiry into the '70s zeitgeist, only to retreat into melodrama. Ultimately, the movie relies as heavily as any porn feature on its intrepid female lead. Rather than exploiting Seyfried, however, Lovelace just sort of wastes her. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comSteven BooneAug 9, 2013
This film is told in sympathy with the Linda Lovelace who reclaimed her real name, Linda Boreman, and became a feminist anti-porn activist years after her sole porn credit. Unfortunately, despite its passion and purpose, it's executed with so many wrong, false, stale and routine creative decisions that it runs aground by the time Muppet Babies Hef saunters in. Read full review
50
Portland OregonianMarc MohanAug 8, 2013
As with so many of his appearances, Franco manages to bring a jolt of energy to the film even while skewering its credibility. Read full review
50
New York PostLou LumenickAug 8, 2013
The superficial script doesn’t go nearly deep enough to begin explaining Lovelace. Read full review
50
Wall Street JournalJohn AndersonAug 8, 2013
There aren't many bright spots in Lovelace, although one is Amanda Seyfried's intoxicating smile, and another is the retinal insult delivered by a 16mm projector flaring out at the audience during the movie's opening moments, and which feels like an accusation. It's the odd film that indicts you just for watching. But Lovelace is an eccentric piece of cinema, made by unlikely people. Read full review
50
SalonAndrew O'HehirAug 8, 2013
Seyfried’s performance is worth the price of admission. But Linda Lovelace deserved something more. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezAug 8, 2013
Lovelace is a timid gloss over on a hardcore subject — a movie that takes a wild true story and shoehorns it into a formulaic mold. Read full review
50
Rolling StonePeter TraversAug 8, 2013
We pity Linda, but it's no substitute for understanding her. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyMelissa MaerzAug 7, 2013
Seyfried works hard for your empathy, with the same naïveté that helped secure Boreman's rep as the ''sexy Raggedy Ann.'' And Sarsgaard is perfect for this role, oozing '70s sleaze in all its mustache-smoothing glory. But even they can't add depth to this sad story. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinAug 5, 2013
Lovelace is a respectable job, but it never goes deep. Read full review
40
Village VoiceAmy NicholsonAug 6, 2013
Lovelace, ahem, blows it. The narrative rewind gives us new facts and a whole heap of crying scenes, but no added insight into Linda's mind—she's still as empty as an inflatable toy. Read full review
40
Time OutKeith UhlichAug 6, 2013
Don’t look to this skin-deep biopic to offer any insights beyond the head-slappingly superficial. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineBill WeberJul 26, 2013
Lost in the music, mustaches, and furniture of the early '70s, this docudrama of a porn star's exploitation isn't nearly painful enough. Read full review
30
VarietyRob NelsonApr 23, 2013
Reducing an immensely disturbing, politically byzantine tale to a series of cartoonish vignettes, this celeb-studded biopic squanders a gutsy performance by Amanda Seyfried. Read full review
25
IndieWireEric KohnApr 23, 2013
Just as the frequent cutaways from sexual activity tone down the titillation, Lovelace never garners the energy to construct a fully involving melodrama, rarely rising above Lifetime movie standards. Given the material, the irony here is that the filmmakers play it too safe. Read full review
12
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Adam NaymanAug 8, 2013
The scenes of Traynor threatening and battering his wife feel just as phony and unconvincing as the sunnier stuff that preceded them, partly because Sarsgaard – usually a fine and subtle actor – flies so over the top in his depiction of a creepy Svengali. Read full review
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