Powerful

As Good As It Gets

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

From a religiously hypocritical up-bringing, to sexual abuse by her father, to being gang-raped in her teens, to a failed marriage, Bettie Page (as a determined, young woman in 1949 with nothing much to lose), then, travelled from her hometown of Nashville to N.Y.C.And when Bettie arrived in The Big Apple full of hopes and dreams, she went from being a failure as a legitimate actress, to appearing in cheesecake magazines, to being a bondage & fetish model in sleazy cinema, to becoming a coyly winking, soft-core pin-up girl.And, finally, things went back around, full-circle, to more religious hypocrisy (ho-hum) with Bettie, now in earnest, arguing the same, old tired crap about morality and the question of Adam & Eve's nakedness.Oh, me! Oh, my! Take my word for it - This "bio" film certainly could've been a helluva lot better than it was.As hot & sizzling & tantalizing as this picture should've been, unfortunately, its final product was a pretty damn tame and light-weight look at Page's career as a piece of provocative "pin-up" eye-candy throughout the conservative, yet turbulent, 1950s.Though actress Gretchen Mol looked simply sensational (in any stage of undress) throughout the story, I found that due to some very poor scripting decisions the Bettie Page character was presented as being too unbelievably naive in regards to the reality and true nature of the sort of employment that she had landed herself into. And rarely, if ever, did Page, at any time, seem to actually find a moment to completely enjoy the fruits of her obvious celebrity status.At a mere 90 minute running time, this film seemed to actually move along at a literal snail's pace. And contrary to what one might think, its subject matter, though intriguing, just wasn't enough to hold my undivided attention.I don't mean to sound downright sexist here, but I personally think that this picture suffered its greatest deficit by being directed by a woman.It appeared to me that director Mary Harron deliberately tried to white-wash and sanitize the notoriety right out of the Bettie Page character, making her appear to be more of an innocent victim of circumstance rather than an active and knowing participant in the manufacturing of "smut".

The Notorious BeP reeks of being another gussied up biopic with largely fabricated events or versions only included to justify making the film in the first place. In fact were it not for the nudity I can see little memorable or notorious about this film at all – the same might be said for Ms Page herself.In the 50s America was quite a repressed and puritanical place, and despite all the subsequent changes in attitude and understanding every current affairs show still seems to inform us that this is still the case today.Anything vaguely interesting is quite illegal, especially vaguely interesting sex related things.Everything from now should be read with the following lead off sentence: "According to the film…" … young Bettie Page had a repressed childhood.… a rushed marriage failed when her husband treated her with disdain, and often violence.… Bettie decided a fresh start was in order and moved to New York. She enrolled in acting classes but when success – and cashflow – wasn't immediately forthcoming a random request to model by a photographer lead her into the industry.… Page's innocence meant few inhibitions, and this carefree attitude to nudity – and a beaming smile – lead to more popularity both from readers and lensmen, which in turn created more offers from more varied sources.… these "varied sources" end up being fetishist stuff including bondage and high heels. Bettie (apparently) adopts the "what the hey" attitude and embraces these new fads, giving her all to photographers, even if she didn't understand what people saw in these bizarre new trends.…even though she didn't think she was doing anything horribly wrong, Bettie still didn't give full disclosure to her own family.…one day a non-industry person opens up and gives Bettie the real public opinion on her antics.… Bettie is confused. After all, she never meant to be Notorious.Look the film seemed to me to give a fairly favourable account of Bettie's life and supplied a bunch of alibis and excuses, more or less saying she didn't choose the industry, it chose her. Gretchen Mol is effective as portraying Bettie as somewhat innocent and likable – even if remaining oblivious to what everyone thought for years seems improbable – and yes Gents she does get naked a few times for brief periods.Given that she herself thought the whole thing was a bit of a laugh you could hardly call these scenes hot or erotic though.Similarly as the filmmaker (at least to me) seemed to think making this film warranted excising any sense of Bettie selecting her career path – there are hardly any "bad eggs" to be found in an industry that must have been quite seedy and underground even a lifetime ago – thereby claiming the "nice girl who didn't know any better" card, I can hardly call it compelling or interesting viewing, but a sanitized version of what actually might have a happened.Final Rating – 5 / 10. For a film begging for notoriety in its very title, and pertaining to the life of a nude and fetish model, this is tame… and flaccid, stuff indeed.

Sex sells… but they weren't ready for the kinkiness. Director Mary Harron (American Psycho, I Shot Andy Warhol) crafts out a respectably diverting, but moving bio-pic on legendary cult pin-up sensation Bettie Page. The narrative follows on through her southern childhood of a religious upbringing with a controlling mother to her quest of being an inspired actress (something and then it took off for her with the modelling jobs, especially her participation in outlawed bondage fetish photographs/and films that would cause a ruckus for their deviant nature and would become a target of a Senate investigation. She was a natural in what she did because she loved what she was doing, and became one of the world's first sex icons… and a timeless one too. What really makes this one work is the tremendously radiant and fetching Gretchen Mol who really does sincerely morph into Bettie Page's buxom shape and spirited persona. It's an admirably flawless and confident performance. Some of the forlorn encounters/or dilemmas facing her character could have tipped her over the edge or mentally damaged her, but she always seemed to find some sort strength to pull through it. The rest of the performances are truly fitting. Chris Bauer and Lili Taylor are outstanding as Irving and Paula Klaw who set-up and photographed Page's bondage pictures. An impulsive Jared Harris has fun with his part, and has some amusing scenes with Mol that really open up her character. Sarah Paulson, Cara Seymour and John Cullum are also good. Filmed mostly in black and white, Harron presents an ideal period flavour of the times (the 1950's --- sexual repression) and inserts some provocatively stylised filming techniques and a tuneful jazz score. Maybe not as outrageous as it could have been (well anyhow it would be tame by today's standards), but still its quite quirky and risqué in a tasteful sense with exposing flesh/nudity. Page rightly saw nothing wrong about what she did, just another expressive art form… but this did affect her ambitions of becoming a serious actress. The story does seem to loose its way in the last third, as it's dramatic structure becomes choppy and briskly concluded. It was an interesting look at the exploration of sexuality and the growing pop-culture that a society at the time couldn't understand or come to grips with.

An entertaining though somewhat conventional biopic of the famous bondage model from the fifties. Gretchen Mol acquits herself nicely in the title role – even though she looks to be quite a bit taller than Bettie was. As played in this movie, Page was a naive and devoutly Christian girl from Tennessee, who nevertheless, after moving to New York, became the main model of a genre that was considered extremely shocking, not to mention illegal, at the time (of course, by the standards of today's pornography, Bettie's photos look now almost innocent). Why she did so is never quite explained, unless you consider a flashback to a gang rape during her teenage years as a valid explanation. In a final analysis, you probably can't explain why a nice girl agree to model in what was then considered extremely shocking set pieces, except by falling into amateur psychology. Though the religion of her main photographers, Irving and Paula Claw is never mentioned explicitly, it is nevertheless quite obvious - therefore, the most provocative thing in this movie is not the nudity but the subtext of a small town southern Christian girl exploited by callous Jewish pornographers. In black and white with a few color scenes.