Pamela, A Love Story

Almost a year after Pam & Tommy released on Disney+ to tell what it claimed to be the true story behind the infamous sex tape that was stolen from Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee, the real Anderson uses documentary Pamela, A Love Story to “take control of the narrative for the first time”. This is her life story told in her own words, some of which are taken directly from the collection of diary entries she’s kept over the years. The aim of the film is to do away with the overly sexualised caricature which Anderson has been labelled with for decades. By sharing her intimate life story, spanning from an abusive childhood, through to the scandals and her recent stint on Broadway, Pamela achieves its goal, even if it does so rather chaotically.

Throughout the documentary, Anderson sits in front of the camera without any makeup on. This isn’t the Playboy sex symbol or the Baywatch star; this is the genuine Pamela Anderson cracking jokes and openly talking about difficult parts of her past. The interviews are complemented with excerpts from her journals, alongside dozens of clips from home videos showing her with the Mötley Crüe drummer and young children. However, the feature doesn’t dwell upon the tape for long. In fact, she’d rather not talk about it at all. Rather, as the title implies, she presents herself as a hopeless romantic who’s in love with falling in love. This was a wise choice to make: not only does it give Anderson more agency over her story, but it likewise prevents the film from re-treading familiar ground for too long.

However, this comes with a slight caveat. Without anchoring the story around a concrete event, alongside skimming through a lot of events, there’s a sense that Pamela is making it up as it goes along. This is particularly evident towards the final third, where the focus shifts to her preparing for a Broadway role. What should have been an uplifting coda to Anderson’s redemption arc, becomes a mini-documentary of its own tacked onto the end of this one.

While Pamela, A Love Story avoids becoming a pure vanity project in telling the life of the eponymous star, its hectic structure shows that this Netflix documentary needed more time in the editing suite.

Andrew Murray

Pamela, A Love Story is released on Netflix on 31^st January 2023.

Watch the trailer for Pamela, A Love Story here: