Gia follows the true story of supermodel Gia Carangi (Angelina Jolie) as she quickly rose to the top of the modeling world only to burn out and die tragically young. When she got into the modeling industry, she was an outsider. She was living in a studio apartment with her boyfriend T.J. (Eric Michael Cole) and living on nothing. Everyone at that time was blonde with big hair and big smiles, and Gia swaggered in with her switchblade out and her dark hair sticking up everywhere. She attracted men and women alike, alternating between dark sexuality and a childlike playfulness. Unfortunately, Gia got into the party scene and became heavily addicted to cocaine. She spent all her money on drugs and started lying and stealing from her lover Linda (Elizabeth Mitchell, better known as Juliet from Lost) and her family. She contracted HIV from a dirty needle and died at the young age of 26.
Gia is a mix of straight-forward narrative storytelling and documentary-style interviews. I think the filmmakers thought that these fake interviews would remind the viewer that this is based on a true story, but as I look back on those sequences, most of the interviews were just characters saying what had already been shown through action in previous scenes or following scenes. Linda and Gia's mother talk about Gia's mood swings, her need to be loved, and her fear of abandonment, and it is accompanied by a scene showing her mood swings, need to be loved, and fear of abandonment. On the other hand, the film's best use of the interview format was when Gia was on her deathbed, and her former lover T.J. shares how she wanted to film an anti-drug public service message. He explains that they could not convince a camera crew to film it. How much of that had to do with Gia burning bridges and how much had to do with the fact that Gia had AIDS is hard to tell. I would have preferred that more of the interview scenes bring new insight into Gia's life or context of events or that they would have been abandoned altogether. On another small editing note, I also wish the editors and music department would have made Gia and Linda's nude modeling scene more classically sexy instead of the more dated porn-esque editing and soundtrack.
Other than those minor complaints, Gia stands the test of time. Jolie is a perfect casting choice as Gia, and having seen her command the screen in films like Girl, Interrupted, I enjoy seeing her early potential and fiery presence. The story captures that time in modeling very well and the attitudes of people working in it. It should be no surprise that the industry took someone like Gia and destroyed her. There is a scene near the end of Gia where Francesco, Gia's photographer, is watching the hair and make-up team prepare her for a photo shoot. Her arms are covered in unhealed scabs where she was shooting up moments before, and she stares straight ahead with dead eyes. Suddenly, she discovers that her knife is missing, and she lashes out at her prep team, screaming, “Who took my knife?” When she gets her knife back, she clutches it the way a toddler clutches a teddy bear or a beloved doll. She might be an international supermodel, but she is still a child in so many ways. Francesco sits down next to her hoping to calm her down, and she cries, “People keep going away from me...that hurts.” His response is, “Work. You have a gift. Use it. Life, life will be there later.” Instead of addressing the problems that put her in this situation to begin with, he tells her to work. She can get clean and be with Linda later.
Beyond showing the rise and fall of Gia Carangi, Gia is the story of the fashion industry in the 1980s. The filmmakers convey what made Gia unique in 1980s modeling while also encompassing bigger issues in the modeling industry such as the widespread drug use and rising concerns over HIV/AIDS. Gia Carangi wasn't the only person to contract HIV from a dirty needle, she just happened to be one of the first public figures to be diagnosed and eventually die from the disease. She wasn't a saint nor was she merely a face to put on a disease. Instead, the film shows what she was, a young woman who was still very much a girl at heart who died far too young.
SPECIAL FEATURES
There are no special features on the Blu-ray release.
"Gia" is on sale November 8, 2011 and is not rated. Biopic, Drama, Television. Directed by Michael Cristofer. Written by Jay McIrney, Michael Cristofer. Starring Angelina Jolie, Elizabeth Mitchell, Eric Michael Cole.
