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The Notorious Bettie Page
User Score
7.5 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 13 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 10 out of 13
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 13
  3. Negative: 0 out of 13

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  1. HalB.
    May 5, 2007
    8
    An unexpected delight. A quirky little black & white film that transports us back into the 30s, 40s and 50s. This is essentially a character study of one of the more fascinating individuals to come out of the 20th century, and it serves as an indictment of our still-repressed culture. Mol's performance is not to be missed. Can you say "Wow!"?
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  2. ChadShiira
    Oct 22, 2006
    8
    Bettie Page (Gretchen Mol) was every man's fantasy, and that's where the filmmaker keeps her, on the pages of a magazine and in scratchy 8mm film. We never see her having sex with anybody. That's a very nice touch, and "The Notorious Bettie Page" is a very nice film. No movie since Wim Wenders' "Wings of Desire" uses both black and white and color photography so judiciously. Black and white does New York justice, as color does the same for a Miami holiday. "The Notorious Bettie Page" is essentially a film about pornography, albeit the period this film captures is an industry still in its infancy, still largely underground. In a bravura sequence, a home movie of the "pornographers" and their models begins innocently enough with fun and games(badminton and croquet); then out comes the rope, and a woman is tied to a tree(more fun and games; bondage), as Peggy Lee sings about "a good day" over the soundtrack. It's interesting to juxtapose this moment with the testimony of a man, later in the film, who blames Bettie's people(the Klaws, Chris Bauer and Lili Taylor) for the unexpected termination of a life. Did Bettie really sin? Is pornography, or even the existence of the female form, harmful? The latter, a question as old as Christianity itself when pertaining to "art". After her career, the pin-up queen is saved, but "you gotta sin to be saved". Bettie professes guilt over career in "modeling", band yet at the moment of their creation, she doesn't look at all guilty, in neither the nude nor the bondage sessions. I can't tell if this aspect of the filmmaker's storytelling is a little muddled, or that the intent is to keep Page on the enigmatic side, with fond remembrance. Mol is awesome.… Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  3. BillS.
    May 22, 2006
    5
    This is from HBO films and I would venture to say that it was released theatrically because it just doesn't meet the usual high quality of a HBO pay-tv movie! Every character is under written and the lead role has no substance and no where to go with it. I recommend waiting till it airs on HBO later this year.
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  4. MarcusG.
    May 22, 2006
    4
    Boring, superificial, and disappointingly lacking.
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  5. ChristopherJ.
    Jun 19, 2006
    9
    Gretchen Mol proves here that she is, or soon will be, a superstar.
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  6. DaveM.
    Aug 31, 2006
    10
    The tone of the movie is flawless. Fun to watch. It makes you wish that life could be that simple.
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  7. Halfwelshman
    Feb 9, 2012
    5
    The Notorious Bettie Page, a biopic of the infamous pin-up icon, is a mildly entertaining romp through Page's early life and modelling career. Gretchen Mol is spot-on as Page, she looks the part and perfectly captures her iconic poses. Jared Harris is also good as seedy British photographer John Willie, as is David Strathairn as Estes Kefauver as a senator investigating the negative impact of pornography on the American people. I also like the stylistic decision to film partially in black-and-white and partially in garish technicolor - it works really well in terms of setting the tone of particular scenes, with Page's formative years and earlier modelling experiences presented with a nostalgic, classic Hollywood appearance, and her celebrity lifestyle in Miami and her most iconic magazine covers presented as garish, striking splashes of colour. Unfortunately, the film does not seem to say an awful lot about anything, beyond a meagre attempt to discuss the morality of nude photography and censorship. A lot of the film, in fact, seems to simply be providing something to fill the space between the softcore thrills. I also feel that the story comes to an end just when it starts to get really interesting. I would love to see a film adaptation of Page's later life, a far darker and more complex period that would offer genuine scope for real drama. That's the main disappointment about The Notorious Bettie Page, for a story of such a controversial figure, the film comes across as a little tame. Director Mary Harron and her co-writer Guinevere Turner could have been so much braver and really gotten behind Bettie Page's motivations, and her seemingly contradictory moral code. As it is, the film is pleasant, but a little limp and uninspiring. I don't begrudge watching such a competent film, but I never felt I got to understand Bettie Page, so as a biopic, it ultimately fails.… Expand
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Critic Reviews

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Metascore
64 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 38 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 28 out of 38
  2. Mixed: 10 out of 38
  3. Negative: 0 out of 38
  1. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: J. Hoberman
    50
    Not for nothing is this movie opening on Good Friday. It can be as boring as church. There's no snake in Bettie's Eden and no narrative to Harron's movie. It's more of an altar piece: Our Lady of the Garter Belt, the Fastidious Bettie Page.
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  2. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Keith Phipps
    75
    Mol nails it, in a performance that should earn her a comeback on a Heath Ledger-like scale.
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  3. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Owen Gleiberman
    83
    The movie, in a sense, is just like Bettie's photos: all glorious surface. The Notorious Bettie Page captures, with seductive finesse, how Bettie Page happened, yet what it leaves us with is the tantalizing enigma of a girl who couldn't truly be ''bad'' because she made sex divinely delicious.
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