Thirteen

Year: 2003 Rating: R Overall Evaluation: 9.0 Significance Suppositions Story Style 9.0 / 10 10.0 / 10 7.0 / 10 9.0 / 10 Click HERE for evaluation criteria.

Style

Rated R for drug use, self destructive violence, language and sexuality - all involving young teens. There is teen experimentation with drugs, graphic scenes of piercing and self-mutilation ("cutting"), underage sex (including a makeout scene between two girls). There is no nudity from the teens but there is somewhat brief (and unnecessary) adult nudity. The adults also engage in drug use and violence. The point of the movie is not, however, to glamorize any of this and for that I give it high marks. This is a brutal movie to watch in many ways - it does not flinch from showing the ugliness of a life in selfish, immature rebellion and hatred. This film is not supposed to make you feel good.

Story

Tracey (the girl) has turned thirteen and enters junior high. She breaks into the "in" crowd through a friendship with a troubled girl named Evie. Evie introduces her to drugs, sexuality, crime, and basically just about every problem that a teen can possibly get into. Tracey's mom is little help - she's a leftover from the 60's who is so busy trying to be Tracey's friend that she forgets to be her parent. Tracey's father is out of the picture of course - long live the sexual revolution! - he's a leftover from the 80's - too into his job to care about his little girl. By the time we reach the end of the film . . .

[SPOILER WARNING!]

. . . Tracey is a raving b**ch - hurting everyone she encounters when she is not busy selling / doing drugs or cutting herself. The climax comes when Evie turns on her when her drug stash is found and Tracey and her mom finally break down and try to come to grips with what's happened over the last year. In the last scene Tracey is spinning on a merry-go-round, dressed half in her preadolescent clothes and half in her popular clothes . . . and she screams.

This film is something of a tragic-comedy. Yes, Tracey ends up learning her lesson (comedy), but she may no longer have the power to do much about it. She has burned her bridges with childhood and scarred over the tender areas needed to recapture her innocence - it's too late to undo the damage (tragedy). Thus she is trapped between a lost childhood and a life with too many bad experiences to go back to, but she is too young and immature to possess the ability to deal with the situation she has created.

Suppositions

This is a very realistic portrayal of a young girl's descent from innocent childhood to the rock bottom of adolescence. The film comes across very believably. Tracey starts off making small errors in judgment, shows some poor values, etc. One error begets another until she is utterly lost. Her fall does not come across as contrived (in fact a teenager - the one who plays Evie - co-wrote the script). It is completely believable and the character's actions are shown for what they are, little is left to the imagination.

Significance

There is little hope in this film which is unfortunate, but it sends an excellent message via negativa (through the use of the negative): this is what life is like when you do wrong, the consequences are harsh, and the damage may be irreparable. If children could see this film for themselves at an early enough age and understood how easily this could happen to them I think the world might be saved a lot of heartache, pain, and regret. It is probably too much for very young viewers - but one must ask: if this film is anywhere near realistic for thirteen years olds - how old is "very young" anymore?