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Factory Girl By Harry Forbes Catholic News Service NEW YORK (CNS) -- "Factory Girl" (Weinstein/MGM) chronicles the sad, sordid rise and fall of socialite Edie Sedgwick (Sienna Miller), who was briefly in the spotlight as part of Andy Warhol's (Guy Pearce) artistic center, called the Factory, in the 1960s. She appeared in his underground movies until, as Captain Mauzner's screenplay alleges, the pop artist grew tired of her. Along the way, she enjoyed a nurturing interlude with a legendary singer (Hayden Christensen) -- read "Bob Dylan" -- who tried to convince her that Warhol's world was superficial and destructive. But she ended the affair -- to her eternal regret, the film contends. The over-the-top lifestyle, with Sedgwick generously overspending with little recompense from Warhol (and her father cutting back on financial support) and abusing drugs and alcohol, led to her eventual burnout. Director George Hickenlooper's episodic film takes an almost documentary approach in telling Sedgwick's story in flashback as she, near the end of her short life -- and stripped of her trademark dark eye makeup, dyed blonde hair and tights -- seems preternaturally "normal" as she relates her experiences to a therapist in a psychiatric hospital. (She would die a year later at 28 from a drug overdose.) There are good performances across the board, including James Naughton as Sedgwick's father, known as Fuzzy, who, the film alleges, abused her as a child; Edward Herrmann as kindly family financial adviser James Townsend; Jimmy Fallon as her early mentor, Chuck Wein; and Illeana Douglas as Diana Vreeland. The milieu is, as you would expect, downbeat and often seamy and therefore not to everyone's taste, but it's presented with relative restraint, and the impressive Miller is immensely appealing in her sensitive portrait of the trusting, vulnerable waif. The film contains nongraphic premarital sexual encounters, upper female and partial nudity, brief sexual banter and innuendo, drug use, some rough and crude language, gay references, and references to child abuse and suicide. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is L -- limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R -- restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian. - - - Forbes is director of the Office for Film & Broadcasting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. More reviews are available online at www.usccb.org/movies. END Copyright (c) 2007 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed. CNS · 3211 Fourth St NE · Washington DC 20017 · 202.541.3250 |
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