Credit: Ron Soltys

Sienna Miller’s job description seems to involve one position: stylish on-and-off again girlfriend of Jude Law. Factory Girl proves that Miller can do much more than look pretty in the pages of fashion magazines. The girl can act.

Miller plays Edie Sedgwick, who is most known for her work and friendship with Andy Warhol. Miller captures the vulnerability of Sedgewick as a young girl who makes it into the New York social scene of the ’60s overnight, and loses everything just as quickly. She was Warhol’s “superstar” until her drug addiction spun out of control and she became another pretty face that lived a life of excess and died too young.

Audiences are introduced to a different Sedgwick than the one at the end of the movie. In the beginning, she’s an innocent twenty-something fresh out of Cambridge University. Even before meeting Warhol (Pearce), she is intrigued by him, and realizes he’s doing something different with art.

Once she meets Warhol, she’s introduced to life at The Factory, a place filled with wannabe actors who make shooting up in the bathroom and walking around half-naked everyday occurrences. Warhol quickly adopts Sedgwick into his makeshift family, promising her she will be a star.

Sedgwick blossoms in her fame. She’s the new “it” girl and is always seen on Warhol’s arm. Her life becomes one filled with drugs, shopping sprees and partying. When the money runs out and she’s abandoned by those at The Factory, Sedgwick realizes too late that once she lost her innocence, Warhol lost his interest in her.

The movie takes a depressing turn once Sedgwick is left alone by those she trusted, but the acting doesn’t. Miller proves that not only can she play a pretty face; she can also play a pretty face destroyed by drugs and fame. From the start of the movie, Miller embodies everything that Sedgwick meant to the ’60s.

One of the best scenes in the movie is at the end. Sedgwick walks into a restaurant where Warhol and his friends are. She’s high, her hair is tussled, and black eyeliner is smudged all over her eyes. She’s no longer the iconic girl of small movies. She’s the poor little rich girl who has no choice but to go back to those who left her.

When her plea for money does nothing to soften Warhol’s heart she leans on the table and starts screaming, “Look at me! Look at me!” At this point, everyone in the audience is looking at this tiny girl on the screen who is commanding everyone’s attention. It’s no longer Sienna Miller playing Edie Sedgwick – it’s just Edie.

Not only does Miller do Sedgwick justice, she went further into the role and adopted Sedgwick’s emotions as her own. Factory Girl is a different look at America’s beloved Andy Warhol, and it’s America’s first look at Sienna Miller, the actress.

Factory Girl

Starring Sienna Miller, Guy Pearce, Hayden Christensen

Directed by George

Hickenlooper

Distributed by MGM

Rated R for pervasive drug use, strong sexual content, nudity and language

Stater rating (out of five):

4

Contact ALL correspondent Brittany Moseley at [email protected].