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Year:   1998
Studio: HBO Pictures/Citadel Entertainment
Movie:  3/5
DVD:    1/5

Teaser

The rise and fall of Gia Marie Carangi (Angelina Jolie), the first bad-girl sultry super-model, who rose to prominence around 1980 and ended up dying of AIDS in 1986. Gia was a girl who just wasn't satisfied with life. She was self-destructive and a rebel, had a rocky lesbian relationship with Linda (Elizabeth Mitchell), and contracted AIDS through heavy drug use. It's ultimately a sad story of a girl who didn't quite fit in.

Movie

This is a made-for-cable movie told in a sort of documentary style. They do the one-on-one interviews with people who knew her (keeping in mind that they're all actors). There are occasional voice-overs from Gia's diary. And then there is the movie that runs in between.

Actors

I remember this movie being a big deal for HBO and Angelina Jolie was still a relative unknown back then. I've said it before and I'll say it again, she's very good playing troubled women. Mercedes Ruehl plays Kathleen, Gia's mother. I know it wasn't meant to be sympathetic and Ruehl played it well. Faye Dunaway is the other name actress, playing Wilhelmina Cooper, head of one of the big modeling agencies at the time.

DVD

The movie is shown in television format. Cast biographies and pictures are the only extras.

Recommendations

If you want to see Angelina Jolie act or at least topless this is the movie for you. Other than that it's a bit too dark for my tastes so I can't really recommend it.
Copyright (c) 2003 Kevin C. Wong
Page Created: November 30, 2003 Page Last Updated: November 30, 2003