SPOILERS:
I had heard such awful things about Factory Girl I went in not knowing what to expect. I had hoped it would be a masterpiece. I got something that fell short of both "dreadful" or "excellent".
First the good. Some great acting. Guy Pierce was the standout as Warhol and Sienna Miller, who I have only seen in one movie "Casanova" was excellent. It wasn't just her acting. She has an amazing screen presence, a charisma that makes it difficult to look away while she's on screen. I will admit I would not have expected that mainly because I knew little about Miller except as Jude Law's ex. Not making assumptions would have been good in this case because she was purely outstanding and even academy award worthy. I guess I shouldn't always judge an actress by her gossip.
Also great was the atmosphere of the time period. And, though the movie starts out almost clinical, as it goes on, one's emotions do get involved mainly do to the depth of feeling in Miller's performance as Factory Girl starts getting more involving. By the end you feel very involved and very sad.
Now the bad. I mentioned the movie starts as "clinical". I am not sure I even know what I mean by that except maybe that it feels so IMPERSONAL. The film skips from one thing to another and many of the scenes are so short that nothing whatsoever feels developed. The characters don't feel developed. Edie sure doesn't despite Miller's great performance. It seems she meets Warhol almost immediately and we don't even know much about who who she is yet. Plus the meeting between them isn't developed. And forget the meeting between Miller and Christainson. Plus I really didn't buy Heydon in this role. He came off as trying to hard. But the characters just aren't developed. neither is the movie as a whole. It seems at times you don't know anything ABOUT anyone. Plus the whole movie just seems so MOVIEISH. The quick scene after scene change definitely contributes to that as you always know your watching a movie. You feel at times like this movie is a quick moving impersonal docudrama.
Even the Factory isn't developed as much as it could have been nor are any of the people there. I will freely admit I absolutely HATED this movie when it first started and as it went on I began to doubt I would make it through the whole thing. I really disliked it.
But it does change a bit and become somewhat more interesting. And the fact is, although it takes an awful long while, one is eventually pulled into the movie. I must comment on the intensity of two of the scenes toward the end, both between Warhol and Edie. These scenes are heartbreaking and really show how great performances can save a film and how good the whole movie could have been if all of it had the same depth and soul as a few standout scenes.
So this is definitely a movie I would say was love/hate for me but mostly somewhere in the middle. I would rate it a low 7 and say it is definitely worth checking out as long as one does not expect something perfect.
I had heard such awful things about Factory Girl I went in not knowing what to expect. I had hoped it would be a masterpiece. I got something that fell short of both "dreadful" or "excellent".
First the good. Some great acting. Guy Pierce was the standout as Warhol and Sienna Miller, who I have only seen in one movie "Casanova" was excellent. It wasn't just her acting. She has an amazing screen presence, a charisma that makes it difficult to look away while she's on screen. I will admit I would not have expected that mainly because I knew little about Miller except as Jude Law's ex. Not making assumptions would have been good in this case because she was purely outstanding and even academy award worthy. I guess I shouldn't always judge an actress by her gossip.
Also great was the atmosphere of the time period. And, though the movie starts out almost clinical, as it goes on, one's emotions do get involved mainly do to the depth of feeling in Miller's performance as Factory Girl starts getting more involving. By the end you feel very involved and very sad.
Now the bad. I mentioned the movie starts as "clinical". I am not sure I even know what I mean by that except maybe that it feels so IMPERSONAL. The film skips from one thing to another and many of the scenes are so short that nothing whatsoever feels developed. The characters don't feel developed. Edie sure doesn't despite Miller's great performance. It seems she meets Warhol almost immediately and we don't even know much about who who she is yet. Plus the meeting between them isn't developed. And forget the meeting between Miller and Christainson. Plus I really didn't buy Heydon in this role. He came off as trying to hard. But the characters just aren't developed. neither is the movie as a whole. It seems at times you don't know anything ABOUT anyone. Plus the whole movie just seems so MOVIEISH. The quick scene after scene change definitely contributes to that as you always know your watching a movie. You feel at times like this movie is a quick moving impersonal docudrama.
Even the Factory isn't developed as much as it could have been nor are any of the people there. I will freely admit I absolutely HATED this movie when it first started and as it went on I began to doubt I would make it through the whole thing. I really disliked it.
But it does change a bit and become somewhat more interesting. And the fact is, although it takes an awful long while, one is eventually pulled into the movie. I must comment on the intensity of two of the scenes toward the end, both between Warhol and Edie. These scenes are heartbreaking and really show how great performances can save a film and how good the whole movie could have been if all of it had the same depth and soul as a few standout scenes.
So this is definitely a movie I would say was love/hate for me but mostly somewhere in the middle. I would rate it a low 7 and say it is definitely worth checking out as long as one does not expect something perfect.