The notorious Bettie Page is directed and co-written by Mary Harron, who previously made American Psycho. It focuses on a specific part of Bettie’s life story, and therefore can not be called a biopic. For those of you who have been living in a cultural vacuum for the last 70 years: Bettie Page is arguably the world’s most famous pin-up. She posed for photographs and films in several degrees of dirty, was brought in to appear before a senate pornography investigation and ultimately (re)found religion and abandoned the scene that had made her famous in favour of blissful anonymity.

The Notorious Bettie Page (TNBP) races through Bettie’s early years, very scantily touching upon her religious childhood, hinting at an abusive father, and virtually skipping over her marriage to a violent husband and being gang raped on a night out. Instead TNBP focuses on Bettie’s career as a pin-up, her acting aspirations and her relentless cheerfulness.

The choice to barely mention any events that do not directly relate to Bettie’s pin-up career, means that a lot of TNBP feels like it is in telegram style. So much of Bettie’s life is not explored, including the relationships outside of her pin-up environment, that it feels as if one is watching only half a movie. Because so much of the background of Bettie’s life is missing, TNBP feels incomplete and therefore one-dimensional.

Also Harron’s choice to shoot TNBP largely in black and white, with the occasional colour sequence, was not a wise one. Possibly the choice for black and white was made to accommodate for real 50’s footage to be blended in with the film, creating a sense of authenticity, but as a result it feels as if the energy from Harron’s own footage has been drained. One of the main character traits of Bettie is her relentless optimism, cheerfulness and southern good naturedness, but only in the colour parts of the film does this really shine through and does the film begin to hum. With the draining of the colour, the spirit appears to have been sapped from the film.

TNBP features quite a few great actors (among them David Strathairn and Lily Taylor) in bigger and smaller roles. Gretchen Moll plays Bettie, and she does it well. Her acting is consistent, energetic and committed. But the choices Harron makes with the story means that Moll’s portrayal of Bettie is ultimately one-dimensional. Moll shows us she could do much more with the part if only she were required to do so; but from necessity Moll can only explore one side of Bettie’s character and can only hint at what is underneath Bettie’s constant merry demeanour. Harron grants us only a minute look at the hurt in Bettie’s life, and so does not allow Moll to delve deeper into what goes on behind Bettie’s cheerfulness. Because of this, any talk of an Oscar-nomination for Moll is premature. She is good, and unquestionably carries the film, but she is not Oscar-good. Moll could surely have done more, but is sadly limited by the choices made in the script and direction of TNBP.

TNBP is undoubtedly charming. Rather than generate a heavy drama, Harron and screenwriter Guinevere Turner, have chosen to create a movie that is light of tone, without being flighty or flippant. TNBP contains both matter-of-factness and innocence, it deals with an aspect of the 50’s sex-industry without actually being sexy or sexualising its female subjects or becoming too grave. That is a remarkable achievement and Harron deserves points for pulling it off. But something inside me feels that TNBP would have been a better movie if Harron had dared to go a bit deeper into her subject’s heart and mind and chosen a more vibrant visual style.