AARP Hearing Center
Rating: R Running Time: 92 minutes
Stars: Amanda Seyfried, Peter Sarsgaard, Sharon Stone, Robert Patrick, Hank Azaria, Bobby Cannavale
Directors: Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman
According to recent news reports, the two grown children of the subject of the new biopic Lovelace were "grateful" for the making of the film, as it reveals to the world a side of their mother many wouldn't otherwise have known.
Directors Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman (Howl) do a neat job of presenting tandem portraits of the star of the 1972 porn flick Deep Throat: the ambitious, un-self-conscious master of fellatio Linda Lovelace, and the manipulated and abused girl-next-door Linda Susan Boreman.
Their storytelling approach along with some brilliant casting, including Amanda Seyfried (recently terrific as Cosette in Les Miserables) as the vulnerable and dominated Lovelace/Boreman, make this small film a surprisingly compelling drama.
We meet Boreman as she and a girlfriend catch rays and smoke cigarettes in the backyard of her suburban central Florida home, where Boreman's parents have relocated after their wayward teenage daughter has given birth to a child, then offered it up for adoption.
Boreman's mother is a stern, world-weary, working-class broad played by Sharon Stone, who disappears into the role (more about Stone in the box below), and her father (the prolific character actor Robert Patrick) is a checked-out former cop who passes the time in front of the TV with a highball in hand.
Enter Chuck Traynor, a charismatic head-turner whom Boreman meets at the roller rink. She quickly falls for him, despite his heavy drug use, and before you know it the pair are married.
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