'The Notorious Bettie Page' is an entertaining tribute

Plenty of models can boast that women copy their hairstyles. But how many can still make the claim after 50 years?

Not a lot — and neither can many rest assured that, decades after the magazines they posed for have gone out of business, men still thrill to their photos.

Picturehouse 'The Notorious Bettie Page' 3 out of 5 stars The verdict: Uses a sharp script and solid acting to relay the story of an iconic temptress Director: Mary Harron Starring: Gretchen Mol, Lili Taylor, David Strathairn, Jonathan M. Woodward, Cara Seymour Run time: 90 minutes Release date: April 14, 2006 Rating: R for nudity, sexual content and some language. On the web Official movie site View the trailer    Trailers require Quicktime Rate 'The Notorious Bettie Page'   Go see it   Make it a matinee   Wait to rent   Don't bother Voter Limit: Once per Hour View Poll Results

Welcome to the legend of Bettie Page, whose cultural position might well be unmatched. Once the most photographed woman in the world, she remains a cherished — ahem — figure. Her willingness to expose herself doesn't explain Page's appeal; plenty of nudie cuties, many just as attractive, have faded into history. Page endures thanks to her peculiar mix of sexuality and cheerful innocence: Even in fetish poses — many of her photos were made for men with unusual sexual fantasies — she was a bit like a kid playing make-believe.

In this entertaining film, director Mary Harron and her co-screenwriter Guinevere Turner do justice to the contradictions and nagging moral issues in Page's career. They give us a heroine whose early experiences with sexual abuse didn't doom her to victimhood. Page often goes with the flow as men (and two crucial women) direct her from behind the camera, but ultimately she's the one in charge — whether she's brandishing a riding crop or not.

They also give her plenty of dialogue to justify what others might see as conflicts between her work and her religious faith. The way Page sees it, Adam and Eve only put on clothes once they became sinners, so why should God mind if she frolics naked on a beach, much less if she poses in stockings and heels?

Gretchen Mol is convincing in the role. While not a ringer for Page physically — women weren't required to put in so many hours at the gym in those days — she's close enough to put the illusion across. More important, the personality Mol invents comes close to living up to the impossible enigma captured on film in the '50s.

Her Page is capable and smart (she would have been the valedictorian of her small-town high school, if she hadn't cut one class to rehearse for the school play) but an eternal innocent. She fields every pick-up line known to man, and never lets on whether she knows how canned they are.

Despite its sharp script and perfect supporting cast, the film never quite escapes the biopic ghetto. The recent "Kinsey" told a personal story while giving midcentury sexual controversies a contemporary urgency. But "Notorious" is more modest in its ambitions, even when its subject throws modesty to the wind.