Film Reviews - Premonition and Factory Girl

Premonition - 2/5

The first thing to say about this film is that I was pleasantly surprised by it - I thought it would be absolutely dreadful and it was only moderately dreadful. The recent trend of time anomaly films seem to be subject to a law of diminishing returns from the excellent (Donnie Darko) to the entertaining (Butterfly effect) to the merely passable (The Jacket) and now to this. The plot, such as it is, revolves around Sandra Bullock (doing her distraught woman on the edge of a breakdown act (and lets face it, nobody does it better)) waking up to find her husband either dead or alive again.

The plotting is especially sloppy, leaving huge unexplained holes (see below). Bullock does her best with the material, but there must be better material out there for her somewhere. The rest of the cast and characters are completely forgettable. Even Peter Stormare, who is better known for his scenery chewing over the top performances, seems completely uninterested in proceedings.

The overall impression is of a film that thinks its being really clever, while actually its being pretty dumb. Any tension there may have been in the is she going crazy/is this real stakes is quickly wiped out as the audience will easily work out whats going on, although even then it doesn't make much sense. By the time a priest turns up to give some sort of pseudo-spiritual nonsensical explanation of things, you'll have stopped caring.

Having said that, if you're willing to overlook the ridiculousness of it all and are stuck for something to see (and lets face it - there ain't that much in the cinemas at the moment - Outlaw or Norbit anybody?), it trundles along in a mildly entertaining, inoffensive manner.

Plot Holes - Warning Here be Spoilers
The plot revolves around Sandra Bullock's character living through the days of one week only in the wrong order. So first comes Thursday when she learns hwer husband died in a car crash the day before, then Monday, when he's still alive, then Saturday when the funeral is and her older daughter has unexplained cuts on her face. We later learn that she got this by running through a glass door on Tuesday only she didn't have them at the start of the film on Thursday. Oops! Come on guys, if you're going make this type of movie you need to be a lot more careful than that.

Factory Girl - 3.5/5
In which Sienna Miller stars in the real life story of Edie Sedgewick, the original 'It' girl, a superstar who seemed more famous for being famous and who she was with than anything she did (although some would argue her whole life was a performance). So far, so typecast. That said, Sienna Miller gives a very convincing and moving performance conveying the fragility behind the glamour of a life that was cut far too short by drugs.

Around her are some equally good performances. Guy Pearce is simply stunning in a deeply ambivalent portrayal of Andy Warhol - at time outrageously amusing, at others hurtfully detached and almost malicious in his attitude towards Edie, with Pearce subtly hinting at the pain behind the detachment. Jimmy Fallon gives a rare serious performance as another of Edie's friends who reveals a real nasty side whilst directing Edie in a film in one of the most shocking and moving scenes of the film.

The weak link is Hayden Christensen. Having shown that he could do something that resembled acting in Shattered Glass, here he reverts to a passable impression of a plank of wood as Dylan-esque rocker Bobby Quinn, a potentially redemptive force in Edie's life who ultimately does nothing for her. The palpable tension and discomfort in the scene in which Edie tries to bring together Quinn and Warhol (two entirely contradictory figures, to both of who she is drawn) provides another standout moment in the film.

Her eventual descent into addiction and breakdown is thankfully not dwelt on in too much gruesome detail, but still leaves a sense of the tragedy of this celebrity.

I've got to admit that Edie Sedgwick is not someone I knew a great deal or anything about going into the movie and I'm also not sure I really get Warhol, so am maybe not best placed to comment on the authenticity of the movie. However, I would say it's worth checking out - somewhat like its heroine, it's flawed, but compelling and moving.