Review of Gia (1998) by Doctor S — 20 Mar 2012

"Gia, this is real life, not Heaven - you don't have to be perfect.".

If there's anything I find more boring and irrelevant to me than the fashion world, it's the personal lives of those involved in the fashion world, so you can see what an uphill battle this film had to fight to grab my attention. Gia tells the true story of Gia Carangi, a name probably unfamiliar to many but in the late 1970's was considered to be the first "supermodel." We follow her from her rocky upbringing to short-order cook in Philadelphia, and then catching a photographer's eye and moving to New York at 17, and then shooting to meteoric fame in the following years gracing the covers of such magazines as Vogue and Cosmopolitan, only to find herself abandoned, addicted, alone - and much worse.

Angelina Jolie's persona has achieved such mystique that it's easy to forget what a firecracker she was as a relatively unknown actress during the mid-to-late '90s. Her starring role as Gia irreversibly put her on the map with a deserving Golden Globe win for this bold, moving, uninhibited performance. She makes us feel her pain as a young woman brought into a world of temptations without a safety net. She clutches at friends & family but only sometimes do they reach back, and she falls prey to the rampant drug culture of the era. But she fails herself too when given chances to pull herself out, leading down a grim path that doesn't terminate where we expect. The film takes critical jabs at this exploitative business of beauty and pulls no punches in dealing with her condition - Jolie looks absolutely ravishing in this movie, but for an equal amount of time she looks ghastly. Death in the movies is often quick; Gia does not afford its audience such an artificial luxury.

"You know that old joke that goes, 'How do you know when a junkie is lying? Her lips move.'.

It's not funny.".

Now for the completely superficial paragraph: unless you're a complete idiot, you're aware this movie has by far Angelina's most abundant nudity, at least in the unrated version. She really is stunning to look at if that's all you're after, and maybe you'll get engrossed in Gia's story too - it's a win-win. Remember the blond fertility doctor Juliet from TV's Lost? That's Elizabeth Mitchell and here she too gets naked and snogs Angelina, I don't know which she would rate higher on her list of career achievements. Lastly, a fun fact: who plays the part of Gia at 11 years old and bears a striking resemblance to Angelina? The surprising answer: Mila Kunis!