(May 10, 2006) — T he Notorious Bettie Page chronicles the life of Bettie Page, the so-called “pin-up queen of the universe,” who was one of the top risqué models during the 1950’s, a time period famous for its emphasis on family value. Page, played by Gretchen Mol, goes from a conservative, churchgoing, Kentucky upbringing to being a pin-up, nude and bondage model after deciding to abandon her hopes of becoming a teacher. Director Mary Harron chooses not to make many suppositions as to the inner thoughts and confl icts in Page’s life with the result that the movie is dry and factual, as opposed to being the exceedingly juicy narrative that most would have made of it. Bettie Page is quite an immersive experience, meticulously and historically accurate with props and sets. It even uses music from the right historical era as time progresses. Most of the fi lm is shot in black and white, though color is used for shots of magazine covers and in the fi nal parts of the movie. The atmosphere is there, but character development and any kind of insight into the subject’s mind is conspicuously absent. The movie is disconcertingly un-Hollywood in that it seems to take almost no artistic license. Throughout the movie, Mol displays almost no emotion in Page’s struggles with her spirituality and the morality of her profession (though one would think Page’s posing for pictures would be quite emotionally involved, given her upbringing). Besides that, many of the events portrayed are disconnected with the rest of the story, and the audience sees very little reaction on Page’s part. For example, early on, we see Page kidnapped and then it is implied that she is raped, but this important event is never referred to for the rest of the movie. Similarly, though a great part of the movie is spent showing Mol and others in very little if any clothing, and there is prolifi c discussion of pornography, the topic of actual sexuality is quite subdued, with the effect that Page’s modeling career seems very disconnected; she is portrayed in the photographs as an essentially sexual creature, but in the rest of her life the audience sees nothing of this. Also, Page is spectacularly undistressed by the ethics of her profession, repeatedly saying “Adam and Eve were naked in the garden of Eden, when they sinned they put on clothes.” Considering this, it is diffi cult to understand her sudden rejection of her career in favor of reading her Bible aloud on the street. At best, The Notorious Bettie Page is an extraordinarily entertaining documentary, at worst an under-acted and disjointed biopic. It is certainly informational, but ultimately, by movie (and not documentary) standards is less than adequate.