Gia, Fama e Destruição

Gia Marie Carangi (Angelina Jolie, Mila Kunis) was born in 1960 Philadelphia and grew up in a broken home. Her mother (Mercedes Ruehl) left her combative relationship with her father. She's volatile and carries a switchblade. At 17, she meets top modeling agent Wilhelmina Cooper (Faye Dunaway). She moves to NYC with boyfriend T.J. but he goes back to Philly. She gets involved with straight-laced photo assistant Linda (Elizabeth Mitchell). She becomes a modeling star. However there is always a need in her that is eventually filled by drugs.

This is simply Angelina Jolie in all her glory. She solidifies herself as the most compelling sexually-volatile actress around at the time. The story isn't much and it doesn't have much drama. The movie has a little style but it is tethered to its TV roots. It is a showcase for Jolie and not much more.

This movie turned out to be a very unexpected favorite of mine. Angelina Jolie stars as the late Gia Marie Carangi, an Italian American woman who rose from a humble Philidephian beginning to worldwide fame as the first known "supermodel", and whose short-lived career spanned from the late seventies to the early to mid eighties. Jolie is super-impressive as she portrays the highs and lows of Gia's fame: strutting through a crowd of admirers, the look on her face saying, "I'm GIA, and you're nobody!"; endulging in glamour drug of the moment, cocaine; fiercely proclaiming her love for Linda (Elizabeth Mitchell), right in front of Linda's boyfriend; tearfully begging her visiting mother (Mercedes Ruehl) to stay with her, then hurling obscenities at her while throwing her baggage out of the apartment; and quietly and gracefully accepting the most tragic news about her health, just as she's finally getting her life on track. This movie deals very frankly with Gia's sexuality and there is some nudity and scenes of sexuality, but looking past the sex and the drugs and the tough exterior she displayed (especially when someone took her knife away from her), you see a very lost, fragile person. Gia is almost childlike in her disillusionment about the fashion industry, and you feel it in the way she fantasizes about a "normal" life with children, the way she feels like people regard her as a "piece of meat" with no brains, and the way she is so truly hurt by a fellow model calling her hateful names in a jealous rage. I think this movie is something that should be seen by people of all ages, regardless of its sexual content, because it carries a strong anti-drug message as well as a touching story we can all identify with even if a lot of us are not blessed with the kind of glorious physical beauty Gia was blessed with.

This movie is your typical "How deviant sex and drugs ruined a successful person's life" films we typically get out of television (shades of the Hayes office!). However, Angelina manages to do what many actors fail to do: take a basically unsympathetic character and make you feel sorry for her. I think the role of Mercedes Rhuel has also not been emphasized enough. Throughout the entire film she presented a highly sympathetic, charismatic persona as the mother who could not quick kick her gosling out of the nest. Gia was not a product of the times--she and others like her were the times.

I rented the unrated version from NetFlix.

Gia is a powerful movie. It is two stories intertwined into one: the life of a confused teenage girl, looking for love and acceptance, and of the modeling industry and its effect on the emotions and egos (no matter how large or small) of those in front of the camera. As a woman who worked within the industry several years ago, I could relate to the confusion that Gia felt.

Angelina Jolie gave the viewer an excellent portrayal of a lonely teenage girl who was trapped inside an adult woman, her only comfort being her lover and later, her drugs.

The performances of the actresses were on target; the message was clear. A haunting movie worth purchasing.

Angelina Jolie has slogged her way through so much mediocre material, I can't even begin to understand how she has kept her love for acting. But it's undeniable... her talent and spirit are bottomless, and she could be a superstar if given the right movie role. 'Foxfire' wasn't it. 'Hackers' was a mess. And 'Gia' is well-intentioned exploitation at best. (I love sex scenes between women as much as the next guy, but the movie goes a little overboard..... there's a fine line between character growth and the Spice Channel, apparently.) A decent biography, I guess, and Jolie does as much as possible with the limited script. But if there's any justice in this world, Jolie will be in the Hollywood elite soon, rather than toiling away on hedonistic HBO works.