The Rise of Sienna Miller, the Fall of Edie Sedgwick

In the beginning of the movie "Factory Girl," you find Sienna Miller talking to the camera, to someone in the room that the viewer still has yet to see. With her brown hair and a face that is nearly free of makeup, you can never imagine that this girl is the same girl that was once the It girl of the 60s only four years before. The girl that she is playing is Andy Warhol's muse in the '60s, Edith Mintern (also known as Edie) Sedgwick. In the first moment that you see Sienna playing Edie, you're curious to find out more about the girl that Ms. Miller is portraying. She displays a vulnerability of a girl who knew that she would not live to see her thirtieth birthday. It's quite bittersweet that this girl that you see in the beginning of the movie is not the girl that she once was.

The movie rewinds back six years before you first see Edie in the movie. She's a 21 year old college girl at Cambridge. She's an art student who's preparing to go to New York with her friend, Chuck, who is played by Jimmy Fallon. When Andy Warhol, who is played by Guy Pearce, is shown; he's in confession talking about a friend of his who has gotten punched in the stomach over a fabulous coat that Andy himself doesn't have. The priest asks him why he comes to confession and Andy tells him that it's a sin not to go. It's hard to understand what the sin is when Andy confesses but in all actuality, he's confessing the sin of envy. Andy's portrayed as a man who doesn't like to be alone and to confirm this fact, his mother is still living with him. He's also shown to have a skin problem that leaves him blotchy and makes him need white makeup on his face, which explains why his face is so pale.