Review of Gia (1998) by Benjamin G — 25 Apr 2009

Just prior to her Academy Award-winning performance for Best Supporting Actress in Girl, Interrupted (1999), Angelina Jolie received major kudos for her acting with the lead role of Gia Maria Carangi in this haunting biopic, earning a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and an Emmy nomination.

A former model with a rebellious personality herself, Jolie is versatile and resplendently raw as a vulnerable 19-year-old swimming with the sharks in the competitive fashion scene or as a junkie walking the alleys of New York looking for her next fix.

Jolie's powerful presence brings Gia's wild spirit to life, while Faye Dunaway is elegant and well suited to her role as the savvy yet nurturing Wilhelmina. Anecdotes from characters representing Gia's friends and family, along with black-and-white behind-the-scenes intercuts, effectively give the film a more journalistic quality, although director Michael Cristofer goes overboard with stylistic affectations which are intrusive rather than supportive to the story.

Like Gia's short life, this made-for-TV movie gets as glamorous as it does gritty: Stylish and colorfully bold photo sessions eventually give way to a devastatingly tragic visual of the supermodel's bout with AIDS.