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Thirteen
(Reviewed August 8, 2003)
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If you are dying to see a lying, thieving, self-mutilating, drug-abusing and generally Very, Very Confused teenage girl spiral dismally downward into depression, despair and utter degradation, this is the flick for you!
"Thirteen"'s gimmick is that one of the script's cowriters (Nikki Reed, who also appears in the film) was 13 years old when she and the director first put the story on paper. The movie was rushed into production so quickly that Reed was only 14 when shooting began. (The studio therefore really should have called this movie "Fourteen," for reality's sake, but you know how actresses are about revealing their true age...)
Although this is Reed's first film role, she does a surprisingly good job playing a damned-bad-influence classmate who gets the movie's main character into the kind of trouble that makes parents wake up screaming. Seriously, every mom and dad who see this movie are going to want to rush home and lock their daughters in their rooms until they are 18. Or maybe 21.
Evan Rachel Wood (also 14 at the time the movie was shot) does a truly impressive job playing said main character, even if her role is ultimately little more than a string of broken-home-product, rebellious-daughter cliches. In a lot of ways, this whole project screams "Lifetime: Television for Women," although it admittedly has a lot more edge than I imagine is found in those made-for-cablers. (Somehow, I doubt that many Lifetime movies feature girls punching each other in the face while doing drugs; blowing rappers and complaining about the taste; or lip-locking each other to show how good they are at kissing.)
What's funny, though, is that the thing is amazingly watchable. I wouldn't call it a guilty pleasure, mainly because there is precious little that is "pleasurable" here. Frankly, most of this movie will make you feel pretty damned lousy, uncomfortable and sad. (When the credits rolled, somebody turned around and said, "Makes you glad you don't have kids, huh?") Just when you think Woods' character has hit rock bottom, she turns around and does something else that is dumb, dangerous and self-destructive. (Kids today!) Still, you can't help rooting for the girl to get it together, make up with her incredibly put-upon mother (Holly Hunter), and basically stop being such a needy, whiney, self-abusing, insecure slut.
It's definitely not the feel-good movie of 2003, but if you are up for some "things sure weren't like that in my day" middle-school soap-opera melodrama, you could do worse.
Back Row Grade: C
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