Themes: Sexual Awakening, Fashion World, Drug Addiction
Main Cast: Angelina Jolie, Elizabeth Mitchell, Faye Dunaway, Mercedes Ruehl, Kylie Travis
Release Year: 1998
Country: US
Run Time: 120 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Novelist Jay McInerney and playwright Michael Cristofer (who also made his feature film directorial debut) collaborated on the script for this bio of doomed supermodel Gia Carangi. In a star-making performance, Angelina Jolie stars as Gia, a gorgeous Philadelphia native who arrives in New York City to become a model and immediately makes an impression on high-powered agent Wilhelmina Cooper (Faye Dunaway). Gia's fierce good looks make her a star, as does her willingness to pose nude. Gia becomes entangled in a passionate affair with a photographer's assistant, Linda (Elizabeth Mithcell), but Linda is more conflicted about her bisexuality, driving Gia away and fueling the model's craving for mood-altering drugs. Failed attempts at reconciliation with both Linda and her mother Kathleen (Mercedes Ruehl) drive Gia further over the edge from cocaine to heroin, her emaciated body and sunken eyes becoming the catalyst for the "heroin chic" look. Although Gia is eventually able to kick her powerful habit, she learns that an infected needle has resulted in her contracting the AIDS virus. For the second year in a row, a made-for-TV film resulted in an Emmy nomination and a Golden Globe victory for Jolie (the first was George Wallace, 1998). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
Review
Just prior to her Academy Award-winning performance for Best Supporting Actress in Girl, Interrupted (1999), Angelina Jolie received major kudos for her acting with the lead role of Gia Maria Carangi in this haunting biopic, earning a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and an Emmy nomination. A former model with a rebellious personality herself, Jolie is versatile and resplendently raw as a vulnerable 19-year-old swimming with the sharks in the competitive fashion scene or as a junkie walking the alleys of New York looking for her next fix. Jolie's powerful presence brings Gia's wild spirit to life, while Faye Dunaway is elegant and well suited to her role as the savvy yet nurturing Wilhelmina. Anecdotes from characters representing Gia's friends and family, along with black-and-white behind-the-scenes intercuts, effectively give the film a more journalistic quality, although director Michael Cristofer goes overboard with stylistic affectations which are intrusive rather than supportive to the story. Like Gia's short life, this made-for-TV movie gets as glamorous as it does gritty: Stylish and colorfully bold photo sessions eventually give way to a devastatingly tragic visual of the supermodel's bout with AIDS. ~ Lisa Kropiewnicki, All Movie Guide
Gia Carangi is a Philadelphia native who moves to New York City to become a fashion model and immediately catches the attention of powerful agent Wilhelmina Cooper. Gia's attitude and beauty help her rise quickly to the forefront of the modelling industry, but her persistent loneliness drives her to experiment with mood-altering drugs like cocaine. She becomes entangled in a passionate affair with Linda, a make-up artist. Their love affair first starts when both pose nude in a photoshoot. However, after a while Linda begins to worry about Gia's drug use and gives her an ultimatum. Gia chooses the drugs. Failed attempts at reconciliation with Linda and with her mother Kathleen Carangi drive Gia to begin abusing heroin. Although she is eventually able to break her drug habit after much effort, she has already contracted HIV from a needle containing infected blood and dies of complications from AIDS in 1986 at the age of 26.
Angelina Jolie - Best Performance by an Actress in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television
Faye Dunaway - Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture
Emmy Awards
Eric A. Sears - Outstanding Single Camera Picture Editing for a Miniseries or a Movie
Screen Actors Guild Awards
Angelina Jolie - Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries
Trivia
James Haven, Jolie's brother, played a cameo in the film.
In the Family GuyStar Wars parody, Blue Harvest, Gia is mentioned in the opening crawl with a reference to Jolie appearing in a nude scene and a love scene with another woman. One of the voice-actors of Family Guy, Mila Kunis, appears in Gia as the younger version of the title role.
