The Notorious Bettie Page
Picturehouse Entertainment | Release Date: April 14, 2006 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
64
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 38 Critic Reviews
Positive:
28
Mixed:
10
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
Film ThreatMatthew Sorrento
Without much help from a weak script, and barely in need of some carefully tuned cinematography, Mol fuels so much of the film that a handful of lackluster elements seem to work. Read full review
60
EmpireOlly Richards
A small, strangely sweet tale well told. But this is all about Mol, who puts in a performance that gives her a very early lead on next year's Oscar race. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterMichael Rechtshaffen
While Gretchen Mol delivers a delightfully exuberant lead performance, the film itself seldom goes beyond skin deep. Read full review
58
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
A feature film has to be more than just an interesting theme; it needs something that constitutes drama -- conflict, journey, adventure, what have you. The Notorious Bettie Page is a perfect example of a film that has a subject but no story. Read full review
50
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
Not for nothing is this movie opening on Good Friday. It can be as boring as church. There's no snake in Bettie's Eden and no narrative to Harron's movie. It's more of an altar piece: Our Lady of the Garter Belt, the Fastidious Bettie Page. Read full review
50
L.A. WeeklyElla Taylor
While it's true that most of us make our way through life without a plan, the studied arbitrariness of Page's accommodating ramble from Hicksville to Smutsville doesn't make for thrilling cinema. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
Harron has said she was determined to be nonjudgmental about Page, to do justice to the woman's "mystery and ambiguity." In practice, however, that attitude plays as coldness, and Page, for all her remarkable zest, comes off as a not terribly interesting person we're given no incentive to become involved with. Read full review
50
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
In spite of the film's surface allure -- no, not the leather, the period evocation -- and a fine performance by Gretchen Mol in the title role, Bettie is in bondage to a shallow, black-and-white script.
50
New York PostLou Lumenick
Disappointingly skin-deep and almost shockingly wholesome, Mary Harron's The Notorious Bettie Page lives up to neither its title nor its advertising slogan, "the pin-up sensation that shocked the nation." Read full review
50
VarietyTodd McCarthy
A superficial look at the '50s sex icon, picture feels like it was researched via press clippings rather than attempting a fresh rethinking of its era and provocative subject. Read full review
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