Gia: Femme de rêve

I'm here to write a small human spin on the film Gia. As this film claims, Gia WAS different things to different people. I know because I met Gia in Philadelphia when we were both 16. I casually knew her from her father's hoagie shop because I went in there often to eat. When I chose to go to college in Philadelphia a few years later, I dropped in occasionally at the shop and I always said hello to Gia's dad to ask how she was doing as a model. He was so proud of her and what she was accomplishing in New York and all over the world. He always had that picture of her in Cosmopolitian above his cash register and he let me look at it. I just knew Gia would do well. Years pass, I move to the West coast. In 1982, I'm in New York and I heard she was right up the street from where I was, and I wanted to stop by to say "Hi" but never got the chance, I was too busy in meetings and never thought about it again. It wasn't until 1990 I heard she died, and the way she died and it tore me to pieces. So tragic to someone many of us thought from our generation, our backgrounds, our area "had made it." In 1998, this movie was done and I thought done as good as it could be. I know there were those closer to Gia that knew more and didn't appreciate it, but I did, and I miss her. Angelina Jolie did some very serious acting to bring this part of Gia's life to the screen. The movie was of theatrical quality and its a shame it didn't get that release. But thanks to this movie, there was a great deal of Gia's life I knew nothing about after 17 years old. But the ending was what touched me, because that is how I will remember Gia, and wish for everyone to remember her as well, even with the rough and gritty content contained in her life brought to screen. This is a hard must see for those who think a model's life is exciting, it can be, but they will also learn its nothing without the love of your parents, stable friends and relationships and the love of yourself - no matter what yourself may be.

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.

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.

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 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.