When we first meet Tracy (Evan Rachel Wood), the main character in Thirteen, she doesn't seem so different than you or I at thirteen. She's in seventh grade, her best friends are the kids she grew up with on her block in LA, and you can see her struggling with the "I'm too old for this" syndrome concerning her stuffed animals and blue polka-dotted socks.
Not for long, though. Thirteen rapidly unfolds into a poignant display of how the seemingly typical life of an adolescent girl can be sent spiraling down the toilet when she gets in with the wrong crowd. Based on the true life experience of Nikki Reed (the actress who plays Evee, Tracy's bad influence), this movie is a stark eye-opener into a world not many people ever see, let alone when they are thirteen years old.
It's not to say that Tracy's life was perfect before she met Evee. She lives with her mother, an unemployed recovering alcoholic, her older brother and an emotionally distant workaholic father with whom her relationship is rapidly fading. When Tracy steals a woman's wallet for shopping money, she earns the attention she's been craving and the privilege of Evee's bad-ass company.
A blossoming friendship ensues. Evee, in her tight black pants, skimpy shirts, chain belts and far too much makeup and jewelry, transforms Tracy's appearance to be that of her own. Together, the two girls steal, sneak out of their houses, get body piercings, smoke pot, drink, and explore their sexuality in more ways than one. All this while Evee's aunt/guardian gets drunk and high herself, and Tracy's mom (Holly Hunter) struggles to understand why her precious, honor student daughter has so suddenly and drastically morphed into an adolescent bitch.
The girls' escapades may seem farfetched and exaggerated to some more skeptical viewers. Evee deals pot to most of her friends, the girls seduce Tracy's hot neighbor into what would be most guys' fantasy threesome (granted, of course, that the neighbor is about 18, and the girls are, yes, 13), have oral sex with their respective boyfriends (if you can call them that) and even practice their kissing skills on each other. For some of you reading this, you may have experienced some or all of these things in middle school, while for others, they were totally foreign (personally, I fall into the foreign category). So while some may say these seem like outrageously concocted scenarios for 13 year-old girls, I find myself horrified, yes, but believing in it all the same.
The truth is that the world of being a teenager, especially a young teenager, has drastically changed since any of us were there, even if only five years have passed. The desire to grow up faster and sexier is rampant among young kids, especially, but certainly not exclusively, for girls. On city streets, in schools, and even at overnight summer camps, kids are wearing skimpy clothing, obsessing over appearances, giving and receiving blowjobs, and exhibiting what I would call a mild case of the hysteria in which Tracy and Evee have been swept up. Thirteen's assertion that this sort of thing goes on in the unstable households of a fast-living metropolis like L.A. is pretty easy to believe.
The performance of these two young actresses is to be applauded. Wood and Reed both show the maturity of experienced professionals, and capture a huge range of human emotion in a relatively short (103 minutes) piece.
One will come out of the theater after seeing Thirteen full of questions: How could this happen to such young kids? Why didn't anyone notice earlier what was going on? Is this reality? Who's responsible for such reprehensible behavior? Is this the world my kids will grow up in? The last one, to me, is the most frightening. When it comes to protecting myself from the underworld of drugs and sex, I feel totally capable. But to let a child roam free where such a world is grabbing at her ankles is petrifying.
Thirteen is a valuable movie for anyone who wishes to understand how the teenage world is changing, anyone who has siblings, cousins, nieces or nephews of that age, and anyone who ever plans on bringing a child into this world. While parenthood is a stage of life very, very far from most of our minds, perhaps seeing Thirteen will inspire you to thank, if you can, those people in your life who kept you from falling down that path.
