"Eight Miles High," based on the memoirs of Uschi Obermaier -- German-born model, commune-member, actress, political rabble-rouser, vagabond adventurer and affiliate to the rock 'n' roll jet-set -- wants to be both a tangy piece of Eurosleaze and an overview of one woman's transformations from the heady days of the 1960s onward.

That's a lot to take on, and the film stumbles on both counts, failing to fulfill the fun trash quotient while also never getting at what makes Obermaier tick.

As portrayed in the film, Obermaier (played with a tussled allure by Natalia Avelon) seems to be a participant of her times but never definitive of her time in the same influential, ongoing way as an Edie Sedgwick or Anita Pallenberg. The character just feels like a wisp in the wind, blowing from here to there without will or purpose.

During the film's closing credits, a series of photos run along the side of the screen, apparently Obermaier's own personal snapshots. That they seem to tell the same story more convincingly than the movie that precedes them says what a missed opportunity "Eight Miles High" might really be. Any film that uses the Stooges' drone-y song "We Will Fall" to underscore a drug-love scene can't be all bad, but they, as apparently does Uschi, deserve better than this.

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Mark Olsen

"Eight Miles High." Unrated. Running time: 1 hour, 54 minutes. In German with English subtitles.