Long before home video and then the Internet took pornography to new highs (financially) and lows (content and access to and involving minors), consumers of such material only had a few places to find it. There were always live shows and dedicated stores, but being caught in one or the other usually meant some sort of social punishment.
Thus the proliferation of what became known as "girlie" magazines. Long before Hef forever associated bunnies with nude women and took pornography into the mainstream, a plethora of magazines and publications showed women (and even more covertly and sporadically - men) in various stages of undress, and all sorts of males (including many a curious teen) ate it up.
One of their favorite subjects was the famous and infamous Bettie Page. Born in 1923 to a religious Nashville family, she was reportedly sexually abused by her father but nevertheless went on to be a good student (salutatorian of her high school) and got into modeling in New York City in the 1950s. An aspiring actress, she made a living modeling, both of the traditional (and more acceptable) variety as well as nude shots and even fetish photos.
Married several times, she was called before a congressional hearing on pornography (but never testified), went bankrupt, spent nearly a decade in a mental hospital for reportedly attacking her landlady with a knife, and became born again. It's a fascinating story, and thus one would think that a movie about her life would be equally compelling.
Sadly, "The Notorious Bettie Page" is anything but. That's not only surprising considering the abundant source material and that Gretchen Mol is a dead ringer for her in both looks and mannerisms, but also because of who's behind the camera -- Mary Harron. Her two previous films "I Shot Andy Warhol" and "American Psycho" -- while clearly not for all tastes -- were compelling, interesting and sometimes shocking works.
All of which makes this loose biopic even more disappointing. While it possesses the to-be-expected but still distracting episodic structure that afflicts many a biopic, the most shocking thing is that, well, it's not all that shocking. Or interesting, informative and/or entertaining.
Some may argue that it's more an examination of the social mores of the time (and thus, by extension, of today as well) than of the particular human subject. I think that's giving the film more credit than is due, and is the result of reading more between the lines than actually exists.
Mostly shot in black and white -- with a few random moments in color (mostly of Page modeling in Miami) -- the film, despite the subject matter, isn't even very titillating. Sure, there will be those intrigued and/or aroused by the recreation of the nude poses and fetish material (mostly bondage), but unless one is fixated on the title character, it's less risqué compared to what's available today in a variety of forms.
What's most disappointing is that we don't ever learn or see what makes Page tick. Mol plays her like a naive or dimwitted beauty who doesn't seem to think there's anything wrong (especially religiously) or odd in the line of work in which she finds herself.
Considering her presumed lack of previous exposure to S&M type material, one would think participating in it would raise some sort of conflict, guilt or even just questions on her part. But for Page -- at least as presented here -- it's all just playful fun and games. It's certainly not the cautionary or eye opening sort of tale told by the likes of "Boogie Nights" (about the filmed porn industry decades later), a far superior film to this one on all levels.
As the opportunists taking advantage of Page, Chris Bauer, Lili Taylor and Jared Harris get even more of a superficial treatment. While Harris' character is appropriately slimy in a slightly charming yet disturbing way, and the sibling characters worry about the government crackdown on their business, we're never really allowed to feel one way or the other about them.
The same holds true for David Strathairn as a U.S. Senator holding a hearing on pornography. The scenes related to him are there presumably because history dictates so, but there's no meat to them. While there's plenty of skin, the film never delves any deeper than that in examining the subject matter or the celebrity who made it so famously alluring so long ago. Belying its descriptive title, "The Notorious Bettie Page" is too bland and superficial to rate any higher than a 4.5 out of 10.
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