This movie turned out to be a very unexpected favorite of mine. Angelina Jolie stars as the late Gia Marie Carangi, an Italian American woman who rose from a humble Philidephian beginning to worldwide fame as the first known "supermodel", and whose short-lived career spanned from the late seventies to the early to mid eighties. Jolie is super-impressive as she portrays the highs and lows of Gia's fame: strutting through a crowd of admirers, the look on her face saying, "I'm GIA, and you're nobody!"; endulging in glamour drug of the moment, cocaine; fiercely proclaiming her love for Linda (Elizabeth Mitchell), right in front of Linda's boyfriend; tearfully begging her visiting mother (Mercedes Ruehl) to stay with her, then hurling obscenities at her while throwing her baggage out of the apartment; and quietly and gracefully accepting the most tragic news about her health, just as she's finally getting her life on track. This movie deals very frankly with Gia's sexuality and there is some nudity and scenes of sexuality, but looking past the sex and the drugs and the tough exterior she displayed (especially when someone took her knife away from her), you see a very lost, fragile person. Gia is almost childlike in her disillusionment about the fashion industry, and you feel it in the way she fantasizes about a "normal" life with children, the way she feels like people regard her as a "piece of meat" with no brains, and the way she is so truly hurt by a fellow model calling her hateful names in a jealous rage. I think this movie is something that should be seen by people of all ages, regardless of its sexual content, because it carries a strong anti-drug message as well as a touching story we can all identify with even if a lot of us are not blessed with the kind of glorious physical beauty Gia was blessed with.
