Gia

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, Rovi

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, Rovi

Cast

• Angelina Jolie - Gia
• Elizabeth Mitchell - Linda
• Faye Dunaway - Wilhelmina Cooper
• Mercedes Ruehl - Kathleen Carangi
• Kylie Travis - Stephanie

Eric Michael Cole; Louis Giambalvo; John Considine; Scott Cohen; Edmond Genest; Rick Batalla - Hispanic Stylist Phillipe; Holly Sampson

Credit

Junie Lowry-Johnson - Casting, Libby Goldstein - Casting, Michael Cristofer - Director, Eric Sears - Editor, Marvin Worth - Executive Producer, David R. Ginsburg - Executive Producer, Ilene Khan Power - Executive Producer, Terence Blanchard - Composer (Music Score), David James Bomba - Production Designer, Rodrigo García - Cinematographer, Jim Brubaker - Producer, Patrick Mitchell - Sound/Sound Designer, Michael Cristofer - Screenwriter, Jay McInerney - Screenwriter

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