DVD Review: The Notorious Bettie Page (2005)
This film follows the story of Bettie Page (Gretchen Mol), the Bible-thumping, sexually-abused Tennessee gal who came to New York and made a big splash as the most famous pin-up of all time in the 1950s and then disappeared into obscurity.
Director Mary Harron certainly knows how to cover the darker side of society, having directed the brilliant ‘American Psycho’ (2000). Here she chooses to shoot Bettie in black and white until she hits the beaches of Miami, where she moved when she abandoned modelling, when the film turns to colour. This choice actually works, showing the lighter side of Page when she is allowed to be comfortable and at home in Miami and when she is trying to be something she is not in New York.
Mol gives her greatest performance as Page. She plays to the kind-hearted and reasonable woman who was raised a certain way, but will not allow that to inform the decisions she makes. Mol has been a favorite of mine for years, she was the best part of Woody Allen’s misstep ‘Celebrity’ (1998) and she was lovely in the over-looked ‘Music From Another Room’ (1998), but here she is able to show layers and colours that her previous work has not allowed her. I hope this film capapults her to the A-list, but if not at least she has this one great role.
The film is short and sweet, never dwelling too long on the dark side of what these photographs were really saying. It hints at the larger governmental issues with the bondage, but this is Bettie’s story and she seemed to run at the first hint of controversy. The film could have gone a bit deeper and darker, there are some pieces missing, but all in all it is an interesting look at a woman we all recognize but know so little about.
Grade: B+
