Movieline's Hollywood Life
"The period re-creation is delicious, and the elegant black-and-white photography cinematography, punctuated with a few color sequences done in the style of '50s Technicolor movies, adds to the sense of nostalgia." 03/01/2006 p.101Rolling Stone
3 stars out of 4 -- "Gretchen Mol is hot stuff in every sense of the term. She delivers the first performance by an actress this year that deserves serious Oscar consideration." 04/20/2006 p.74 Entertainment Weekly
"[A] frisky and fascinating biopic....Gretchen Mol, as Bettie, gets that naughty/nice erotic charm to an astonishing degree." -- Grade: B 04/21/2006 p.53-54 New York Times
"[E]xuberant....A work of gorgeous surfaces, shot in mostly silvery black-and-white film..." 04/14/2006 p.E1 Los Angeles Times
"Interestingly shot by Mott Hupfel in both color and black and white..." 04/14/2006 p.E4 USA Today
"Gretchen Mol does a fine job physically embodying Page..." 04/14/2006 p.6E Total Film
4 stars out of 5 -- "[Mol's] Bettie radiates warmth, joy and vivacity. Without any emotional showboating she gives the character heart..." 08/01/2006 p.38 Sight and Sound
"[A] visually ravishing investigation of a life lived with an innate sense of decorum." 08/01/2006 p.58 Ultimate DVD
3 stars out of 5 -- "Beautifully shot....Gretchen Mol as Bettie is simply luminescent..." 12/01/2006 p.200 ReelViews 8 of 10
The Notorious Bettie Page is one good looking movie about one good looking dame. It tells of the career of '50s pin-up queen Bettie Page (Gretchen Mol), who was the object of countless masturbatory fantasies in the pre-Playboy era. Despite being a straightforward bio-pic, The Notorious Bettie Page is more than just a tasty morsel of eye candy. The film takes a little time to explore the political landscape of the time, and features an Oscar-worthy lead performance...a delightful movie. Not only does it shine a spotlight on an American pop icon about which not a lot is known today, but it gives us a porthole into morality and livestyles of post-World War II America. Harron's directing and Mol's acting make this worth seeking out... - James Berardinelli
Chicago Sun-Times 9 of 10
You might expect such a film would aim for scandal. Not at all. Nor is it an attack on censorship or prudery; it doesn't defend Bettie and the pornographers she worked with, but presents them as mundane laborers in the world of sex, finding a market and supplying it...Gretchen Mol is finally the key to the mysterious appeal of the film, to its sweetness and sadness. She plays a woman who for whatever reason does not consider her body an occasion for sin but a reason for celebration. In a haunting scene in an acting class (taught by Austin Pendleton), she is assigned to "do nothing" on the stage, and responds by absentmindedly beginning to remove her clothes. - Roger Ebert
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