Lovelace, the biographical film about Linda Boreman, better known as Linda Lovelace, tells the story of the pre-internet porn film, Deep Throat. Primarily, though, it follows Linda from religious country girl to enthusiastic spokesperson for sexual freedom.

Amanda Seyfried

The story is set in stone, and it’s a good one, but have directors Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman managed to translate it to the big screen and do it justice? According to the reviews, it would appear as though they haven’t.

“Seyfried's performance is worth the price of admission. But Linda Lovelace deserved something more,” say Salon.com, while USA Today reckon, “With Deep Throat on DVD, it's still possible to see every inch of Linda Lovelace without ever seeing the woman herself in focus. Lovelace, ahem, blows it.” Subtle pun work there.

Time Out New York weren’t overly impressed with the efforts of Epstein and Friedman. “Don't look to this skin-deep biopic to offer any insights beyond the head-slappingly superficial,” goes their review. Another N.Y publication, The New York Magazine, simply say, “Lovelace is a respectable job, but it never goes deep.”

And that’s the consensus of all the reviews: good, but could have been much better. It adds up to an average rating of 56% on Rotten Tomatoes. At least Seyfried will be proud of her performance, as many of the critics have noted. Anyone who wanted to learn the history of porn before the internet will wind up seeing this film regardless, considering it’s one of the first depictions of such a story. Everyone else might as well watch Pacific Rim or something.