One Hundred Percent Edie--'Factory Girl'

Sienna Miller does a good job. Guy Pearce is a fantastic Andy Warhol.

But...

There's only one Edie.

I saw George Hickenlooper's Factory Girl when it opened at the end of last year here in Los Angeles and was simultaneously entertained and annoyed by the movie.

Though Sienna Miller does do an impressive turn as Warhol muse/youthquaker Edie Sedgwick and Guy Pearce does make for a wonderfully droll Andy, I thought the film relied too much on Edie's relationship with a certain iconic musician (Hayden Christensen doing a covert Dylan--and yes, the sex scene is unecessary) and focused on Edie, chiefly as a victim. Edie was screwed up, obviously, but was she simply a victim? No way.

If you want to learn more about her, read Jean Stein and George Plimpton's "Edie: American Girl" a groundbreaking and fascinating oral history of the beautiful Warhol superstar. In that, you see Edie as something of a Holly Golightly, a fab, endless party who attracted many but eventually wore people out and resulted in tragedy. Instead of hailing from hicksville (Golightly's secret), she was a well educated blue blood with deeply disturbing family issues (suicide, probable incest) that she both buried and, in a strange way, extolled by flitting the night away on loads of speed. But she was still a macap light that burned fast--a drug addled screwball heroine who didn't get Cary Grant or William Powell at the end of the picture. Instead, she got the Hell's Angels in California...and a boob job. And yet, even then, she was still "on," still Edie, still, in her twisted way, entertaining. It's obviously worth noting that her story was a sad one and yes, Edie was a mess, but Factory Girl never shows how endearing she could be.

That saying, I couldn't take my eyes off the picture. And I liked the use of real life Edie characters commenting on her (including Plimpton) while the credits rolled. I just wished the picture had a little more meat and fun and...fabulousness to it.

But for more pure Edie, buy Ciao! Manhattan. And listen to the commentary. You'll learn that Edie, even in her craziest state, was a lot stronger than Factory Girl leads you to believe.