OVP: Thirteen (2003)

Film: Thirteen (2003)

Stars: Holly Hunter, Evan Rachel Wood, Nikki Reed, Jeremy Sisto

Director: Catherine Hardwicke

Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Supporting Actress-Holly Hunter

Snap Judgment Ranking: 2/5 stars

We continue our look this week at the Best Supporting Actress race with somehow the most recent nomination for Holly Hunter, despite the actress regularly appearing in projects that might suggest she would be getting her fifth nomination.  Holly Hunter is one of the best actresses working (and has, for my money, the single greatest voice in movies today), and so getting to watch a piece of work from her is a treat.  However, with my recent re-viewing of the Twilight movies, I was actually more intrigued by what I'd think of Catherine Hardwicke's work here.  Hardwicke wrote & directed Thirteen, penning the script with star Nikki Reed (who co-wrote the screenplay when she was just a teenager, and of course went on to star in Hardwicke's Twilight movies).  I love the Twilight movies, even though I acknowledge they are bad (other than old horror movies, which we spent last month chronicling, this is one of the only circumstances where I allow complete adoration of a series that I know is not good), and so I was fascinated if that love might translate to a much more realistic, critically-embraced setting like Thirteen.

(Spoilers Ahead) The film is about two young girls, Tracy (Wood), who lives in a single-parent home with her brother and mother Mel (Hunter), and Evie (Reed), a "popular" girl who indulges in behavior with older guys, does drugs, and shoplifts.  Tracy is an honor student, but one who is desperate to be like Evie, and eventually impresses Evie enough that they become friends.  In the process, Tracy's grades begin to slip, and she starts to experiment with increasingly erratic behavior, much to the frustration of her mother, who doesn't understand why this is happening.  Evie moves in with Tracy & Mel, claiming that she has a bad home life, but eventually this comes to a head when Evie's drug use is found out by her guardian.  The end of the movie shows Mel & Tracy reconciling, understanding that they are in a different stage of their relationship but are once again on the same team.

The film is pretty dark, and one of the more intriguing aspects about it is that Reed has publicly stated she regrets writing it since so much of it skewed to her own life (in her case, she was the "Tracy" character), since she was only 15 when the film was released, and said she didn't like that she exposed so much of her family's dynamics to the world in such a way.  It is rough to watch, and doesn't really age well for viewers as the movie progresses.  Some of the treatment of both Tracy & Evie would be considered dated today (particularly the way the script uses Tracy's self-harm as something of a late-stage twist), but it is fascinating to know the strange real-life dynamics of having Reed playing the character who supposedly corrupted her, even if the end result isn't nuanced or fully-fleshed out.

Hunter is good, if not at her greatest, as Melanie.  I get why this was cited-it's a tough, complicated role.  Hunter plays Melanie as a woman who has not given up on the youth aspect of her life-she's still young in her mind, and frequently treats Tracy & Evie more as peers than as children she needs to look after.  However, I think she slightly fails as the movie continues, perhaps abandoning too much of that "need" to be the cool mom (or perhaps part of her wishing she hadn't been a mom at all), when she's forced to conventionally go after Tracy's behavior to save her daughter.  I liked it, but I didn't love it, and Hunter has been better (even if she's once again very watchable).