The film is cliché after cliché, with two-dimensional characters and a flat, uninspired script. To be fair, Sienna Miller does a wonderful job with the material she's been given. Sadly, it's not a lot to work with.
One of the major flaws in Factory Girl is that there is no character that you can like. I wasn't sure who I was supposed to care about, possibly because no character was ever developed enough to get past their surface. It's hard to portray Andy Warhol in film, after all of the versions that have been done, and his own status as more icon than man. This film only proved the point, by playing him in a way that felt more like a parody than a person.
Over and over again, the film takes the easy road, from its After School Special depiction of drug use to the predictable dialogue, walks through Central Park, even the establishing shot of the Eiffel Tower to show "hey, look, they're in Paris!"
New York looks like a studio set, and the filmmakers give the impression that they aren't even familiar with the city. A cab is told to go to "2nd Avenue and Fifth," where somehow a massive concert is taking place - despite the fact that the address is in the East Village, with only mom & pop stores and small bars in the area.
The casting is nothing if not bizarre. Hayden Christensen as Bob Dylan, sorry, "Billy Quinn," comes off as an opinionated (though incredibly fit and Gentile) jerk with a guitar, Guy Pearce is too attractive for Andy, while Sienna Miller doesn't have Edie's soft beauty.
The greatest crime is that this will be many people's first introduction to Edie Sedgwick, and they will go away with an impression of a simple, disposable girl - with none of her glamour, whose problems can be neatly wrapped up in a few lines about her father. Her entry into Andy's world is nothing more than an entrance to a party, and her fall is just a soap opera decline.
If you have any interest in Edie Sedgwick at all, do yourself a favor and watch Ciao Manhattan, but by all means, avoid Factory Girl.
One of the major flaws in Factory Girl is that there is no character that you can like. I wasn't sure who I was supposed to care about, possibly because no character was ever developed enough to get past their surface. It's hard to portray Andy Warhol in film, after all of the versions that have been done, and his own status as more icon than man. This film only proved the point, by playing him in a way that felt more like a parody than a person.
Over and over again, the film takes the easy road, from its After School Special depiction of drug use to the predictable dialogue, walks through Central Park, even the establishing shot of the Eiffel Tower to show "hey, look, they're in Paris!"
New York looks like a studio set, and the filmmakers give the impression that they aren't even familiar with the city. A cab is told to go to "2nd Avenue and Fifth," where somehow a massive concert is taking place - despite the fact that the address is in the East Village, with only mom & pop stores and small bars in the area.
The casting is nothing if not bizarre. Hayden Christensen as Bob Dylan, sorry, "Billy Quinn," comes off as an opinionated (though incredibly fit and Gentile) jerk with a guitar, Guy Pearce is too attractive for Andy, while Sienna Miller doesn't have Edie's soft beauty.
The greatest crime is that this will be many people's first introduction to Edie Sedgwick, and they will go away with an impression of a simple, disposable girl - with none of her glamour, whose problems can be neatly wrapped up in a few lines about her father. Her entry into Andy's world is nothing more than an entrance to a party, and her fall is just a soap opera decline.
If you have any interest in Edie Sedgwick at all, do yourself a favor and watch Ciao Manhattan, but by all means, avoid Factory Girl.
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