Gia, Fama e Destruição

The acting, actresses, plot, interviews in between, it was all phenomenal. All the different emotions from Linda and Gia's relationship were made possible from the incredible acting. Highly recommended!

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.

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.

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.

Angelina Jolie is a natural fit to play Gia Carangi.

Both were rebellious growing up. Gia was a punk teenager in Philadelphia who headed off to New York in the late 1970s and soon became a top fashion model under agent Wilhelmina Cooper (Faye Dunaway.)

Success was swift and in the heady days of the early 1980s. She became a supermodel, was openly lesbian/bisexual, did lots of drugs. Unfortunately she was one of the first famous women to die of Aids in 1986.

Co-writer and director Michael Cristofer gives this movie a docudrama approach. It has talking heads discussing aspects of Gia's life.

Gia was undoubtedly a brash woman, she had relationship issues with a girlfriend and a complex relationship with her mother.

Despite being artily shot, some nudity from Ms Jolie. It comes across as another rise and fall true life movie.

At times it just felt skin deep and a bit camp. Nothing about the pressures of the fashion industry where drug use is regarded as common.

The taboo aspects of Aids in the 1980s is dealt with. It should had been a movie that amounted to something more. Jolie certainly showed why she was regarded as a rising star.