There is one remarkable aspect of "The Notorious Bettie Page," and that is the superb performance of Gretchen Mol ("The Shape of Things"), who plays the lead character better than I can envision anyone else doing it. Despite the fact Page is a fairly one dimensional character, Mol is able to inject in her an honest, searching quality, which compensates for her roles as both a naïve observer and participant. It's the character's immense likeability that manages to keep one engaged, even when the film settles into an uninspired rhythm.

Bettie Page was raised in a conservative family in 1930's Tennessee, but by the 1950s, she's living in New York City, taking acting classes, and is also one of the most recognizable models in the country. What distinguishes Bettie isn't just her beauty, but the nature of her work. She moves from posing in bikinis to modeling high-heeled boots while carrying a whip; some photos even show her bound and gagged. Soon Bettie is a celebrity in the covert world of fetish and bondage magazines.

But this celebrity leads to the woman's most trying times. In 1955, a Senate Subcommittee led by Tennessee Senator Estes Kefauver (David Straithairn) begins an investigation into the effect pornography is having on the youth of the country. The investigation targets photographer Irving Klaw (Chris Bauer) and his sister Paula (Lili Taylor), the two people most responsible for Bettie's success and notoriety. Now in her 30s, Bettie's livelihood, if not her world, appears ready to crumble.

The Senate Subcommittee hearing is used as the film's bookends with the story unfolding in between. It turns out to be a fitting (although I'm not sure if it's intentional) narrative technique because it illustrates how little Bettie's character grows from beginning to end. Although her environment changes drastically, she takes it all in stride. Dressing up in bondage gear might seem unusual to her at first, but it doesn't take much convincing for Bettie to accept it's all harmless fun. You expect her to be more questioning, given her religious upbringing, but she's something of an eternal optimist, which is even odder in light of the fact she was the victim of a sexual assault while still in Tennessee.

In terms of presentation, Harron pushes the right buttons. The film is predominantly shot in black and white, and some of the color sequences effectively replicate the look of Super-8 home movies of the period. But it feels like Harron is too preoccupied with making the film neat and easily digestible, and it lacks anything in the way of grit, or even unpredictability. We learn of a secret lover Bettie has in Florida (where she worked with noted photographer Bunny Yeager, played by Sarah Paulson), and also see her with her boyfriend in New York, Marvin (Jonathan Woodward), but this aspect of the story is handled vaguely, and doesn't give us much insight into the character beyond the obvious.

Of course, the reality simply might be that there isn't anything more to Bettie Page. It's hard to fathom anyone could live the life she did and essentially remain a blank slate, and it would be a mistake to tamper falsely with the character in order to make her more intriguing. But if this is a factually accurate representation of the woman then perhaps a straightforward biopic isn't really the best format to tell her story. I wonder if the character and events depicted here might not be given a more interesting treatment were they part of a different framework.

If nothing else, "The Notorious Bettie Page" shows Mary Harron -- as I commented last week about Nicole Holofcener's "Friends With Money" -- maturing as a filmmaker. It's a very competently made movie, but missing the personality needed to rise above the norm.

Warren Curry

Related links:
IMDB: Notorious Bettie Page, The (2006)