Thirteen

Title: Thirteen
Rating: 4/5
Genre: Drama
Starring: Holly Hunter, Evan Rachel Wood, Nikki Reed

The childhood of Nikki Reed – by her own admission – could perhaps best be described as “complicated,” yet it was at the tender age of thirteen that she began to write the script for this film, with her own experiences as the blueprints. Chronicling the journey of the perils of peer-pressure with a shocking realism that transcends the normal definition; normally when we refer to realism within a film it is meant that the events could happen. But not here, for as we follow the story of Tracy as she gets caught up in a world of promiscuity and substance abuse, we realise that events such as this does happen.

It is the character of Tracy (Wood) that the film centres around, starting off as a quiet girl, studious, intelligent, and helpful. Enter Evie (Reed), the pretty and popular bad-girl of the school who quickly becomes her role-model. It isn’t long before the two are inseparable, Evie moving in with Tracy and together they slowly begin to take things further, the ticking time-bombs spiralling out of control as they dabble in drugs and alcohol, much to the dismay of Tracy’s mother (Hunter), a recovering alcoholic single mother desperate to protect her, fearing what she is getting herself into with an overwhelming feeling of being unable to help.

Its greatest strength lies in the manner events unfold, seamlessly raising the bar in such a manner that you don’t realise its been raised, with clever use of changing their appearance, eventually seeing them transcend from a simple shirt and jeans to more ‘adult’ clothes to reflect upon their current situation. Further promoting the realistic feel of the film is the fact that both stars are (shock!) teenagers, barely older than the characters they are intended to portray, everything feels realistic, each character – even the minor ones – have their own fleshed out history providing their own issues; from the father being torn between his family and work to the new boyfriend surviving in a halfway-house, tackling a cocaine addiction.

And if there was a close follow-up for strengths the prowess of the cast would undoubtedly be it. With a risqué character performed by Wood, she treads a fine line between teenage mood swings from an all out fury to passive in a moment, it’s a balance that to be pushed out to the extremities to deliver the impact required without becoming a caricature of the truth, and it is a line that she treads very well. Likewise, Reed displays she is capable of displaying heart-wrenching emotion, with a vitality obscuring the possible truth – though given the characters nature whether she at any point tells the truth is anyone’s guess – that presents a unique individual. These performances are only matched by many of the more prominent support cast, notably Hunter as the desperate mother trying to keep her family together, and the boyfriend who causes friction despite trying his best.

I read a few reviews claiming this to be an unrealistic portrayal of teenagers, likely from middle-aged men with children of their own, incapable of the belief that they would be capable of such actions. This was never intended to demonstrate the average child of this age, but rather the situation that the minority can easily find themselves in. The real question surely becomes this; do you want to know? Any parents should watch with caution as this film offers an unflinching and frightening portrayal of just how bad things can get.