Well-intentioned but tepid and underdeveloped look at Edie Sedgwick, actress and socialite whose life came to an untimely end at age 28.
Film focuses mainly on her association with Andy Warhol´s Factory and a supposed relationship with Bob Dylan (here called Billy Quinn to avoid a lawsuit).
Sienna Miller looks perfect as Sedgwick and gives it her best, but the character is underwritten and mostly unsympathetic.
Guy Pearce, though not really convincing as Warhol, is magnetic and has us rooting for a character written as a villain; his performance is easily the most memorable thing about the film.
Hayden Christiensen is awful as Dylan, however. Short runtime for such a complicated story highlights the film´s shortcomings; key aspects, such as Sedgwick´s descent into drugs, are never fully explored.
The film ends at a curious, hopeful point: Sedgwick in rehab, supposedly drug-free, with her past behind her; only end titles inform us that she dies shortly thereafter.
Fails as both a biopic on Sedgwick and a look at Warhol´s Factory; the latter, however, is fascinating even in a movie like this, despite key figures like Nico and the Velvet Underground thrown in as afterthoughts – the material begs to be fully explored.
The Village Voice´s Nathan Lee called this ‘Edie for dummies´, an unfortunate but fully accurate description; film does work at that level, however, and those who know nothing about Sedgwick or Warhol´s Factory may find this fascinating.
For the rest of us, it´s mostly a disappointment. Far less interesting than any documentary on the same subjects.
