Film Review: THE NOTORIOUS BETTIE PAGE (2005)

The team of screenwriter Guinevere Turner and director Mary Harron return after their unforgettable collaboration AMERICAN PSYCHO with THE NOTORIOUS BETTIE PAGE, which is the first major film to take a look at one of the most infamous pin-up girls in American history.

As played by Gretchen Mol Bettie Page is a well rounded young woman whose life is turned upside down when at first she starts off as a model in California before becoming involved in the underground pin-up market in which she posed nude for photos that at the time were deemed illegal and were sold under the counter to "special" clients. Page is never presented as naïve even though to many she probably was. The Page of this film goes from her struggles as a model and actress with no prospects to a woman who discovers she has a gift to pleasing people and becoming one of the most sought after women in the field. She lives the good life for a very long time.

Page is a woman that wanted very little out of life and Mol presents one of the most well rounded views of the woman that has ever been committed to film. The film is filled with an impressive cast that includes Chris Bauer, Jared Harris, David Strathairn, and Lili Taylor, to name a few. Taylor is a definite standout as she steals every scene she is in as one of the people responsible for Page's raise to infamy.

Like in AMERICAN PSYCHO, Harron has a habit of presenting both the controversial background of their characters as well as the "human" ones which make for flawed yet interesting characters. The same can be said of her presentation of Page whom is a character that, by the end of the film, has evolved to a place in her life where her life in the underground world of nude photography does not destroy her innocence completely as she eventually becomes a very religious person. This film is definitely a film that showcases Turner and Harron at their best and hopefully this won't be their last collaboration.