Gia (Rated)

With good source material (Stephen Fried's A Thing of Beauty: The Tragedy of Supermodel Gia), Jolie's stunning performance, and strong directing by Michael Cristofer, the movie goes beyond the merely sensational. The script was cowritten by Cristofer and novelist Jay McInerney, whose Bright Lights, Big City covers similar territory. As a cautionary tale, Gia works. But to watch Jolie in her character's tragic self-destruction is utterly compelling. --N.F. Mendoza

WARNING ::: This review reveals some plot points !

"Gia", a film for HBO, stars Angelina Jolie, Faye Dunaway, Elizabeth Mitchell and Mercedes Ruehl.

This film is the life-story of Gia Carangi, one of the first "supermodels". How big a star/model was Gia? Well, Cindy Crawford was dubbed the "young Gia" and the "next Gia" - that's how famous she was.

Unfortunately, besides being the "face" of the day in the modelling world, she was also fairly famous for her drug addiction and ultimate fall from grace.

If you want a more indepth depiction of Gia's life - there are a couple of books available. The best being "Thing of Beauty: The Tragedy of Supermodel Gia".

Back to the film.

Angelina Jolie BECOMES Gia in every sense of the word. Her performance is one of the best portrayals of real people in years. She is completely and utter believable. She captures what is surely the essense of Gia. She brings a desparate wanting to the character that you can feel.

Elizabeth Mitchell ( recently of "ER" fame ) co-stars and really provides an excellent touch-stone for Gia's tortured existance.

There's nothing pretty about this film - it shows the whole story, the drugs, the parties, the sex, the pain and the suffering. It depicts, with little filter, the USING of Gia and her decent into her fate.

It's no surprise that Angelina won a Golden Globe for this amazing performance. It's no surprise that she was nominated for an Emmy either. You're not able to take your eyes off her. As a matter of fact, this is a much awarded film - including a best actress award for Angelina Jolie at the LA Outfest.

Faye Dunaway is mainly here for star power - almost as if they weren't sure Angelina Jolie could pull it off. She's okay here, but we all know that Faye has done some amazing work and here, she sort of phones it in.

Mercedes Ruehl plays Gia's mother and she does a good job. She's a little over the top but you suspect it's an accurate portrayal.

For the Angelina Jolie fan - it's a MUST SEE, MUST OWN film. For others, it really is worth the time and money.

You don't often get a chance to see a young star make an amazing film like this. You'll see small tales of "Lisa" from her Academy Award winning performance in "Girl, Interupted" in Gia, but mostly you'll see an INCREDIBLE performance by Angelina Jolie. Really remarkable.

FYI : There is an UNRATED version available on VHS that is currently not available on DVD. The UNRATED version contains more explict scenes ( specifically the shower sequence is longer ).

In all, a great film. Well written, directed and acted. A real gem. Thank you HBO.

All The Best, turtlex


Gia - A tragic true tale!   January 2, 2004
K. Wyatt (St. Louis, MO United States)
95 out of 112 found this review helpful

"Gia" is quite simply the haunting but well told story of Gia Marie Carangi. Truth be told, I was not drawn to this movie at first because of the story, what drew me and I'm sure many others to it is the star Angelina Jolie. After her success in the Tomb Raider movies, I thought it would be interesting to see some of her past work, thus this movie became very interesting!

Angelina Jolie performs admirably and brilliantly in this film, almost to perfection in what I'm sure is an even greater range in her talents. The depth of the character she portrays does compel you to the character despite already knowing the tragic outcome. Praise goes to Faye Dunaway and Mercedes Ruehl for their efforts in this film as well.

This true life sad story is told well in the film; however, the director, Michael Cristofer, chose an almost cryptic style in which to tell the tragic story of Gia's life which, at times, detracts from the overall telling of the story. The score for the film does do well in what it's designed to do, augment the overall feel of the movie.

The Premise:

"Gia" is the overly tragic story of Gia Marie Carangi; a young and extremely beautiful woman from Philadelphia who suffered the break up of her parents at a young age and then in her late teens, a photographer stumbles upon her and not long thereafter the life of a supermodel overwhelms her. Incapable of dealing with separation of any form, she turns to drugs!

What follows from there is a heart wrenching and very telling true life tragedy of what happened to this beautiful young woman.

I would definitely recommend this HBO movie; one for the story itself and two for the exceptional performance by Angelina Jolie in this heartrending tale. {ssintrepid}

Special Features:

-Cast & Crew Bios
-Photo Gallery


AMAZING   December 30, 1999
70 out of 89 found this review helpful

The entire movie is fabulous, but i would just like to pay special attention to Elizabeth Mitchell for her amazing performance as Angelina Jolie's love interest. Now i totally agree with everyone when they say that Angelina's performance was flawless, but most people have a tendency to over look Mitchell's character and her part which made the movie so wonderful! somehow Mitchell was able to steal all of the scenes she was in, which is an especially hard task since most of the scenes are with Jolie. she's amazing as Gia's lover. you are truly able to feel the love Linda has for Gia, and this is in part thanks to the chemistry between the two actresses but also because of Mitchell's obvious amazing talent at completely giving herself to her part! all i want to know is what else she's has been or will be in! i loved her in this movie and i hope that she keeps portraying wonderful characters such as Linda! so for everyone who loves Gia, next time you watch the movie please pay special attention to Elizabeth Mitchell's magnificent performance as the only person who loved Gia unconditionally!


Missing 6 Minutes   June 12, 2005
David E. Hill
52 out of 55 found this review helpful

This is a terrific movie and I was thrilled to see Angelina Jolie playing this part, (I first saw her in Hackers). But in case you don't know this, the DVD is missing 6 minutes of the movie. the only way to have the extra 6 minutes is to have gotten the original release on VHS (or recorded in from HBO). After Angelina became more popular, 6 minutes of her nude scenes were deleted from later re-releases of the movie including this DVD. But it still is a good movie.


Another extraordinary performance by Angelina Jolie   February 15, 1999
40 out of 46 found this review helpful

In this intense and heartfelt film, Angelina Jolie captures the essence of the sad and turbulent spirit of Gia Marie Carangi, the fashion model who struggled with abandonment, fame and drug addiction. Elizabeth Mitchell is Linda, a character who represents several of Gia's relationships. She is an angelic "square" whose attempts to put Gia on the right track are constantly frustrated. Although the film takes some poetic license with this enduring love interest, it does provide us with an accurate glimpse of the kind of monogamous relationship Gia longed for but was unable to obtain. Faye Dunaway as Whilhelmina Cooper (Wilhelmina Models founder)and Mercedes Ruehl as Kathleen Sperr (Gia's mother) are wonderful. Ruehl has a complex character to portray. The movie will not win the modeling industry any new friends, and you'll think twice if you were planning on farming your daughter out to young miss fashion competitions. Angelina Jolie as Gia lets us learn from her mistakes and the movie leaves an indelible mark that cannot be airbrushed away.