Tribute to Sienna Miller: Wander Darkly

Description

With her first two starring film roles, Sienna Miller established her range. In the 18th-century-set Casanova (2005), she proved adept at period roles and established her talent for comedy. Factory Girl (2006) was a different animal altogether, a dark drama and one in which she wholly inhabited Andy Warhol’s tragic and thoroughly modern muse, New York “It” girl Edie Sedgwick. Miller got her start as a model before making her screen debut at 19 opposite Rupert Everett in South Kensington (2001) and upping her profile with supporting parts in the gangster thriller Layer Cake (Festival 2005) and the dramedy remake Alfie (2004). Among other roles, she’s played a soap opera actress going head to head with a contemptuous reporter in Interview (2007), for which Miller received a Film Independent Spirit Award nomination; Caitlin Thomas, Dylan Thomas’s wife in The Edge of Love (2008), for which the British Independent Film Awards nominated her for Best Supporting Actress; actress Tippi Hedren in The Girl (2012), which garnered her a Golden Globe nomination; and a single mom (and grandmother!) in American Woman (2018). Join us for a conversation with Sienna Miller, followed by a screening of her latest film, Wander Darkly.

Read more about Sienna Miller in Randy Myers’ essay Sienna Miller: Here to Sear Your Brain.

Wander Darkly
Tara Miele, USA, 2020, 97 min
When love goes wrong, it’s often difficult to pinpoint how or where, but new parents Adrienne and Matteo have the chance to do just that after a life-changing event. What actually happens to the couple is left a mystery until the very end, and Tara Miele’s shape-shifting drama depicts an otherworldly melding of past and present as the couple reevaluates their relationship through their shared, and sometimes contradictory, memories. Sienna Miller is radiant and tough as reluctant mom Adrienne while Diego Luna brings a tender bemusement to the role of Matteo.

“[Sienna] Miller is phenomenal, playing multiple emotional zones from the early days of a relationship to the fear of a horror movie heroine worried she’s stuck in purgatory and the Grim Reaper is coming for her. She’s legitimately always good, giving her all to everything she does, and this is one of her best performances.” –Brian Tallerico, RogerEbert.com

Director Tara Miele

Tara Miele’s previous features include The Lake Effect (2010), Gone Missing (2013), and Starving in Suburbia (2014). In 2016, her short film Meet a Muslim went viral, garnering over 40 million online views to date and leading to a script deal with Warner Bros.

“I really wanted to do something [with Wander Darkly] that structurally reflected the way that my brain works, which is very rarely in the present, but often in the past, or projecting into the future. The other thing was finding a way to reflect on a relationship — the best and the worst moments of it — and to try to take stock of, what is it worth, at the end of the day?” –Tara Miele, Deadline

Film Details