Movie Reviews from the Vault: Thirteen

After watching a couple newly released movies, as previously written about on this blog, I decided that there may not be many high quality movies out there these days. Therefore, I decided to go back in time a bit and review from older movies that I have just recently discovered. Among these, is the film Thirteen which was released in 2003 and stars Evan Rachel Wood and Nikki Reed. The movie is based on Nikki Reed's tumultuous life during her adolescence.

The plot follows Wood's character named Tracy as she enters the 7th grade and becomes entranced with her wild classmate Evie (played by Reed). Evie proves to be a terribly influence on Tracy who goes from being an excellent student, blossoming poet, and sheltered young lady to a 13 year old drug abuser who loses her virginity and verbally assaults her family members on a daily basis. Tracy's mother (Mel), played expertly by Holly Hunter, is a recovered drug addict/alcoholic who is trying to save her daughter without getting sucked into back into the drug and alcohol scene herself. As Tracy and Evie become closer friends, Evie makes up lies about her past in order to stay at Tracy's house and win over her family. In addition, Tracy is trying to deal with the fact that her father has a new family and does not have time for her. Just when the tension seems to be at its boiling point, Mel's boyfriend (who is an ex-cocaine addict) moves back in after his stay in the halfway house.

With such a heavy plot, I was skeptical that the young actresses wouldn't be able to pull it all off. I was completely wrong! Wood plays her part so well that I wondered if she had experiences similar to those in the film. Holly Hunter was equally exceptional as was Nikki Reed did not in fact play herself in the film but instead played the antagonist. Once I did some background reading on this movie, I found that it had been written by Nikki Reed and director Catherine Hardwicke in six days and was originally going to be a comedy. This shocked me because the material is so tragic and raw that there isn't even enough humor for a dark comedy. It was equally impressive to read that it was written in such a short time period because the characters are very well developed. Of course it has its pitfalls, but the majority of them hit in the first half an hour of the film. At times the script feels clunky, but it never interferes with the action or emotion of the movie. Overall, it is an extremely impressive feat and worth a viewing.

-DLP