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...but the general moviegoer's mileage may vary in Mary "American Psycho" Harron's stylized look at the American sexual psyche as seen through the lens of the immortal Queen of Curves, Bettie Page.
I'll not bore anyone with a recitation of the iconic status of Ms. Page, a prim and proper valedictorian from Nashville, Tennessee, who moved to New York in hopes of being an actress and ended up becoming the Bondage Queen of the Universe. Nor will I run through the sketchy bio-pic plot of "The Notorious Bettie Page," though I offer high kudos to the technical aspects of the film (a sequence of animated magazine covers springs instantly to mind), improper use of a period camera notwithstanding. Finally, I won't belabor the timely applicability of the film's themes of innocence and perversion, freedom and control, the sacred and the secular; they're there for the viewer to absorb, if they wish. The more things change, the more they stay the same, as the saying goes.
What I will ramble on about for a moment is the splendid performance of Gretchen Mol as Bettie Page. Truth is, Mol's face looks almost nothing like Bettie's, nor is she particularly built like Bettie (although only a fool would deny those beautiful breasts, and no fool, I!). She doesn't even sport the thick, dark bush that concealed Ms. Page's most intimate charms, but the fact remains that Mol thoroughly embodies the spirit of Bettie Page in every way, shape, and form. It is a bravura "comeback" from an undeserved semi-obscurity. I've never met Ms. Page (and sadly, never will, most likely), but I've devoured the photos and videos, and read all the bios and interviews available, bought the trading cards and other odds and ends, and to be honest, lusted for Ms. Page ever since I first discovered her in my adolescence between the covers of dusty tease magazines at the barber shop and the five and dime. Mol perfectly captures the essence of the woman as I have come to conceive her, no pun intended, in what I consider to be an Oscar-worthy performance. Liv Tyler could never have matched Mol's shining intensity of characterization in a million years, and I, for one, am grateful she left the project. Not that I'd mind seeing her totally naked, I hasten to add, but I can't imagine that her brand of sensuality would have translated into the innocent exhuberance of Bettie Page.
"The Notorious Bettie Page" is not for everyone, any more than bondage and discipline are. I suspect it will do much better on disc than in the theaters; legions of devoted Page fans and the curious will see to that. I can only hope that the DVD will be chock full of enough Bettie extras to show the uninitiated just how good a job Mol has done.
Beyond that, a tip of the hat to a fine supporting cast, especially Lili Taylor and Chris Bauer as Paula and Irving Klaw, whose celebrity photo business was Bettie's doorway to immortality.
A final note to the young scribe who opined that Ms. Page had no effect on his generation: take a good look at Madonna's cone brassiere and get back to us. Bettie Page is, whether you know it or not, the true Godmother of fetishwear. Without her, Madonna and the rest of her kin could never have existed.


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