I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

The first must-see film of the year.

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

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Pretty interesting dive into the life and career of Bettie Page. Even though I'm gay myself, I think she is one of my favourite people from the 50s, and I am just as saddened that she has had mental health issues in the past, if not famous for memory, but not now. But religion overshadows any mental health issues in this film. Of course, I understand that she was born again, and I'll admit there are lots of films that focus more on other people's mental health that would be more helpful, (this film does focus on the photo shoots and the controversy surrounding her S&M films) but you CANNOT just end a film without her fame haunting her afterwards. I think it should be impossible to ignore completely, even if brief, but surprisingly, this HBO film doesn't seem to have any acknowledgement of what happened or even the state of her at the time. Somehow charming and sexy in showcasing her beauty and the range of the work she was in, but way way too fluffy to appreciate as a successful adaptation. Deary me!

Bettie Page, pin-up queen, was perhaps the most photographed woman of the 1950s, posing for professional and amateur photographers alike and appearing in men's magazines of all sorts from the mainstream to Playboy and bondage fetish books. The latter brought her to the attention of crusading Sen. Kefauver's committee on pornography, putting an end to her modeling career and her aspirations as an actress. The movie starts with her being called to testify and flashing back through her early years, where we see her as a free spirit who lived to pose for cameras. Despite a religious upbringing, she saw nothing wrong with what she was doing and was consequently puzzled by the strong reactions of those who did. Since this is the central issue of the movie a somewhat deeper probing of her character would seem necessary to reconcile the conflict, but we just don't get it. Despite being front and center in just about every shot in the movie, Bettie emerges simply as a sweet woman who was a little ahead of her time, and not much more.The movie has a nice period look, though, and creates an unusual portrait of professional pornographers as being something other than exploiters. Here they just like to play dress up in fetish costumes and take pictures. The implication, of course, is that the purchasers of such material, not the makers, are the perverts.

Gretchen Mol's impeccable casting as the winking, ticklish nudie-cutie Bettie Page could not have been a better choice, but that was the film's biggest inspiration and nothing else here quite measures up. A naïve gal from Tennessee, church-going and raised by a strict mother, hits New York City in 1949 after walking out on her marriage to an abusive soldier. Bettie wins a few modest beauty contests before stepping into her future role as a pin-up model for men's entertainment magazines; with times and tastes quickly changing however, the era of the cheesecake photo passes and Bettie smoothly segues into a harder type of pornography: bondage photos and light S&M shorts. Nothing in this girl's life appears to happen according to a plan...it's all serendipitous. Bettie is asked, "You wanna try this?" or "Can you do something like this?", and her answer is always, "Sure, why not!" To her it was all fun and games, accompanied by a big country smile and an innocent shrug. When her steady fellow points out to her how disreputable her S&M photos are, her answer is to fly off to Miami Beach, where she picks up a muscle-boy and dances under the stars. Are we to assume Bettie was not so sweet and innocent, that she knew exactly what she was doing? A flashback to Page's childhood suggests a certain looseness already forming (also a hint of sexual abuse by a man who appears to be her father). The subplot about a formal investigation into smut-peddlers is a squashy mess, and the black-and-white cinematography is mostly disappointing. Still, Gretchen Mol is something else entirely; creating a genuine character out of this noodle-headed script shows true talent, and she matches up with our memories of the legendary Bettie Page quite nicely. We never feel anything for this Bettie, we're never moved by her sordid ups-and-downs, though that's due to the handling. Mol rises above the sloppy material and gives it more than just a nostalgic kick. She's in the spirit, even if the rest of the picture could certainly use some soul. ** from ****

Now some people when they look at a movie like this might be, this is just sex. The truth is, it is so much more than that. Does it happen to contain nudity? And is the main character a sex symbol? Yes and yes. However, give it a chance, and you'll notice that it is indeed sexy but it's also moving and powerful and way more than porn; i.e: boobs. Gretchen Mol is fantastic as Bettie Page, I can not imagine any other woman portraying the role. And making it clear that this movie is meant for the story of the woman, and not the story of her body, is the fact for the first half hour or so, there isn't even any nudity. Instead the movie is about the life of a symbol and trend setter, Bettie Page. My only complaint with this wonderful movie is it's length, it doesn't dive deep enough, however so many movies telling true stories about people are overly long and in that sense it's massively refreshing to learn about someone in a shorter amount of time and being entertained throughout. Great movie. Rent it or buy it, I'd heavily recommend purchasing it though, this is one you'll definitely want in your collection. This is not a guy's movie, but guy's can enjoy it too for other reasons than oogling Gretchen's portrayal of Bettie.