Gia (unrated edition)

(1998)

"Everyone Saw The Beauty, No One Saw The Pain."

"Gia" is based on the real life story of late 1970's supermodel Gia Marie Carangi; starting with her life as a young girl, we see her watch tearfully as her mother (Mercedes Ruehl) leaves her father and her, for another man. We next see her as a spike-haired, pink-haired punk of 18, working in her father's diner, who becomes a model after an impromptu photo shoot one evening. As her fame rises, she falls under the influence of heroin, and dies from AIDS in 1986, aged 26. Gia Carangi was one of the first women in America whose death was attributed to AIDS. Taken from interviews with people who knew her, and her own journals, "Gia" is a film that catapulted Angelina Jolie, in the lead role, into stardom, and for which she earned the Golden Globe Award, and also helped bring to attention the growing epidemic of women with AIDS.

Gia Carangi could possibly be described as the brunette Marilyn Monroe of the modeling world; another woman famous for her beauty, whose emotional vulnerabilities ultimately led to her death. Angelina Jolie is electrifying and completely believable, possibly drawing from her own modeling past, and empathy for the woman she portrays. She almost eerily seems to embody the tragic supermodel - I remember very well the model Gia from her heyday, her ads, her covers, and I had wondered what happened to her - until I saw this film. Her celebrity is illustrated by the fact that supermodel Cindy Crawford, who resembles Gia Carangi, was often referred to as "The Next Gia", and "Baby Gia", when she first started modeling.

This unrated version (I have both) has 5 minutes more footage in it than the rated. I haven't watched my other version in awhile, but there seem to be more drug/needle scenes in this one, and possibly a little more nudity.

Gia starts off as a very sexy film, making Gia's sexuality evident in the earliest scenes - at her first, informal modeling shoot, she shows her preference for women, and later on when asked if she's ever had sex with a man, replies "Yeah, once. I could have done that with a German Shepherd". But the film soon must delve into Gia's downward spiral into drugs and depression, after the death of Wilhelmina Cooper, her first modeling agent and a close friend/mother figure. As Gia says, "People keep going away from me. It hurts."

The film is a study in greys, punctuated with flashes of bright colors, such as red. A mournful Jazz soundtrack for the titles and parts of the film, and classic rock and roll songs of the time contribute greatly to the atmosphere.

With a strong supporting cast, including Mercedes Reuhl as her mother, Elizabeth Mitchell as her lover, Eric Michael Cole as her friend T.J, and Faye Dunaway as Wilhelmina Cooper, HBO Pictures brought to TV one of the best of the made-for-TV film genre.