Mary Harron and Guinevere Turner's biography of 1950s erotic icon Bettie Page — an enigmatic beauty who brought her trademark voluptuous curves, jet-black bangs and palpable sense of good-natured fun to cheeky men's-magazine layouts as well as seriously kinky bondage photos — is an oddly lifeless affair, though Gretchen Mol's sunny performance almost hauls it out of its doldrums. It opens and closes at crusading Senator Estes Kefauver's notorious 1955 Senate-subcommittee hearings on pornography, where Kefauver (David Strathairn) grills "pinup king" Irving Klaw (Chris Bauer) as Page waits demurely outside for her turn in the hot seat. Vignettes from her Tennessee chil...
Released:
2006
Rated:
R
Length:
91 mins