Factory Girl is abysmal. There are, unfortunately, too many things working against this film that makes it almost painful to watch. The root of them all is the lack of captivation that the story offers; an absolutely typical and cliché story of a rising star who allows drugs and fame to get the better of her.

It’s not that 60’s ‘it’ girl, Edie Sedgwick (Sienna Miller), and her legacy – if that’s what people see it as – is not worth paying tribute to. For anyone who knows her as just a star or the lead in Andy Warhol’s (Guy Pearce) films, Sedgwick’s story is definitely worth telling. But when the tribute comes in the form of a film, it doesn’t take a Steven Spielberg to know that there’s more to it than a process of storytelling. There has to be, for one, depth and variety to the coverage, not in the form of introducing fiction but rather a deeper, accurate understanding and exploration of Sedgwick and her struggles.

In this case, audiences have plenty of opportunities to see Sedgwick’s joys and weaknesses, from her first meet with a charming musician (Hayden Christiansen), with whom she falls in love, to her encounter with financial trouble and drugs. But they don’t get a chance to feel her emotions. They just pass with every event and chapter in the film’s coverage. It’s sad at first, but after a while, one gets used to it and perhaps couldn’t care less. This is a fine example of how mediocre and surface storytelling on screen could get.

There doesn’t seem to be a solid objective to many scenes. The people and events in Sedgwick’s life don’t shine enough to strike a purpose for bringing them into the picture. Boy, there might not even be a clear objective for the entire film. And that’s most probably the saddest part about this tribute; that viewers are going to walk out of the theatre not knowing clearly who Edie Sedgwick was and what it is that director, George Hickenlooper, is trying to say. With that, Factory Girl is as meaningless as the sex that Sedgwick has in the film.

And to think Singapore waited almost a year for this movie.

There could be so much more done with the story in these aspects and it’s a waste writers, Captain Mauzner, Aaron Golub and Simon Monjack, couldn’t see that. It’s times like these when we appreciate more the quality of Akiva Goldsman’s A Beautiful Mind and Susannah Grant’s Erin Brokovich. Who would have thought the story of elderly Nobel prize winner for economics, or the assistant in a small law firm trying to make ends meet as a single parent of 3 could turn out as captivating and charismatic as these scriptwriters wrote them to be? It’s the power of exploring the details in one’s personality or even a mundane life that helps carry a biographic film through smoothly. Factory Girl failed tremendously in this area.

Thankfully, the casting of Miller, Pearce and probably even Christensen as eye candy (because that’s the only positive thing about his performance) made Factory Girl possible to watch. Pearce brings justice to the oddness of Warhol, his quaint ways of thinking and the weird world in his head that few can come to terms with, let alone understand. Pearce, however, proves to know this character inside out, especially with his coiled reptilian actions and vampire-like complexion.

But it’s Miller who is truly brilliant and shines as Sedgwick, bringing to the screen every twitch and fidget that we know of the poor little rich girl to incorporate – intentionally or unintentionally, we don’t know – into her movements, and living up to the flighty personality that defines the breezy and hyperactive Edie Sedgwick. Is Miller acting or just playing herself? It doesn’t really matter. This is easily a mixture of Barbra Streisand in Funny Girl and Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast At Tiffany’s –absolutely classic.

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Movie Details:

Opens: Oct 25

Running Time: 87 mins

Language: English

Cast: Sienna Miller, Guy Pearce, Hayden Christensen

Director: George Hickenlooper