directed By Catherine Hardwicke
written by Nikki Reed and Catherine Hardwicke
starring Evan Rachel Wood, Nikki Reed, Holly Hunter, Vanessa Hudgens, Brad Corbet, Jeremy Sisto, Deborah Kara Unger
A young girl discovers the pleasures of a number of illicit behaviors and quickly collapses in on herself while her helpless mother looks on.
As the film opens Tracy Louise Freeland (Wood) and her best friend Evie Zamora (Reed) are huffing and smashing each other in the face. They laughingly bid each other to hit them harder and each blow draws blood which only makes them giggle more. The film backs up four months and Tracy is troubled because she’s not accepted by the cool kids and she so desperately wants to be. She longs specifically to make friends with Evie who seems to be the most popular girl in the school. It is the seventh grade and Tracy is an excellent student who writes stirring poetry. When she finally meets Evie school takes a backseat to every other thrill and life becomes an ornament with nothing inside.
This is in many ways a typical story of dissolute youth. It starts with petty theft, moves on to drug use, and in this case crash lands into acts of self harm that Tracy administers on her arm when things seem to be spinning out of control. Life is drugs, drinking and smoking, staying out late, not doing any homework and failing to the point that she is threatened with being held back. School just doesn’t have the appeal of acid in the park with her friends, blow jobs to black guys, and other assorted acts of mayhem and strict disobedience to the order and the direction society expects her to go. There are many single shots of Tracy alone looking bewildered, hurt, and as if she is thinking terribly hard about what she is supposed to do with her life. The gashes on her arms heal leaving evidence that she at least felt alive for that brief instance when she was tearing into her flesh. She is a smart kid who has discovered a wild course that allows her to experience life in a rush, more fast forward then most people.
Tracy’s Mom Mel is a struggling hairdresser who works out of the home. She is a high school dropout and simply wants to make Tracy’s life as carefree as possible. But when Tracy begins to rebel against her she crumbles slightly. She is a former substance abuser who has invited her boyfriend Brady (Sisto), himself a recovering addict, back into the home. This chagrins Tracy who doesn’t want to see her mom get hurt again. There is much tension in the home which drives Tracy toward the black hole toward which she is heading exceedingly fast. It is she and Evie against the world and the world proves to be winning. Evie admits to having been sexually abused by an Uncle when she was nine and physically abused by her cousin’s, Brooke LaLaine (Unger) boyfriend. She has been living with Brooke for some time but would much rather live with Tracy and Mel.
This is a film that doesn’t necessarily condemn the fast life. Certainly it painstakingly illuminates its drawbacks but there are distinct moments of bliss, however fleeting. Tracy is just like a lot of kids who find themselves down a specific path. There are moments where it appears as if Tracy has gained control of her drug use and perhaps will learn to hide it from herself more effectively. There is a sensuality to this film that perhaps might seem troublesome to some. It depicts children exploring their bodies in ways that make a great many people decidedly uncomfortable. It is difficult to admit that children are sexual beings who are naturally inquisitive and who explore terrain that society deems off limits to those who are perceived to be incapable of fully comprehending the implications of their actions. In this film, there seems to be a link between the use of drugs and the interest in matters of the flesh. Tracy is a good kid who early on is presented as innocent of the machinations of adult social interaction. As the film progresses she becomes more wise to how things are actually done and this knowledge proves to displace her somewhat leaving her gasping and wholly confused.
Tracy is a girl who has been damaged by various tumults in her home life. Her father and mother are long split up and initially this proves to be nothing of dramatic consequence to her overall well being. She still excels at school and carries herself with a sense of purpose and meaning. However, the desire for more than the pedestrian drives her onward and makes her susceptible to experiences that threaten to upset the balance she has heretofore maintained. Still, these experiences are intoxicating and open her up to further explorations into avenues that are far more dangerous than what she perceives them to be. Essentially she is on a path that the film suggests is wholly destructive and if she continues she may perhaps become totally lost to any help her mother and other adults might be able to provide. By cutting herself she is expressing a totemic anguish that remains inexplicable to outsiders who have never experienced such a direct, systemized measure of dealing with acute emotional trauma. Tracy becomes numb to her surroundings and the initial ecstasy is replaced by a dull ache for which there seems to be no remedy. By using various implements to draw blood on her flesh she seems to be suggesting that she has found a way to gain control of her agonies at last.
The two women who are featured in this story both have a difficult background that has left them reeling to a certain degree and which suggests a deeper understanding of what each girl is going through. Yet their awareness of some of the edgier behavior seems to be lacking due to the traumas that each of them are experiencing in their own disjointed lives. There is also a lack of stability in the homes which lead to Evie desperately longing to live with Tracy permanently because she feels threatened in living with Brooke.
It is not accurate to state that Evie is entirely responsible for influencing Tracy to behave in such a blatant anti-social manner. Tracy initiates it by stealing the handbag out a fumbling longing to be liked and appreciated by the kind of girl she longs to be. She doesn’t just go along with what Evie suggests and in fact takes her behavior to a level that even Evie balks at. There is an implicit limit to how far Evie will go and Tracy crosses the line and spirals completely out of control. Evie seems capable of handling herself and not succumbing to all the hostility and torment that drives Tracy forward. This is the difference between the two girls. Evie can formalize her behavior so that it doesn’t become self-destructive and Tracy can not. This is often the case with those who cast the initial spell on a person who is not so far along as a social animal willing and capable to sink their teeth in. The more vibrant, dynamic personality has already learned how to control their excesses and by their very nature encourage the others to participate in their fun. Unfortunately, as is the case here, the spellbound person isn’t wholly prepared for the ramifications inherent in certain illicit acts so they end up taking things further than they are prepared for.
There is a supreme sadness to much of this film. Early one the audience gets caught up in the giddy thrills of being young, sexually alluring, and free of all inhibitions. There is an exhilaration to these actions that adults have often forgotten or deliberately pushed into the further recesses of memory. This film captures the irrepressible aspects of being young and willing to try anything for a thrill. There is a real sense of the urgency to keep moving at all costs because that is the speed which thought races at. Everything becomes a blur, distant, unreal. There is an appreciation for anything that accelerates the process and allows a person to keep up with the uncanny speed with which the world seems to be rushing by. In a sense the poetry of pure speed is perceived as the doctrine with which the adult world conducts itself. By deliberately speeding her own thought processes and succumbing to the displaced need to experience life at such a heady pace, Tracy is merely tapping into a very real aspect of life as it is lived in the business and technological sectors of society.
The film presents a type of quiet desperation with which Tracy conducts her life. She clearly wants life to be a series of sensory excitements that trigger specific emotional states that allow her to mask the emotional anguish that is all too familiar. But there is nothing that can ease the pressure she is feeling and nobody save Evie to whom she can turn to. The initial highs are eventually replaced with a sense of being crushed beneath the weight of so much trauma. She can’t understand how her mother could ever relate to the depth of her pain because she is skeptical of everything adults might attempt to say to her. Somehow a large divide develops between Mel and Tracy and each struggle to find ways of bridging the gap and working toward healing. Mel is damaged and has difficulty keeping her own life together so she’s not necessarily the best role model for Tracy in terms of emotional health. There is really no legitimate motivation for Tracy to cease cutting herself as the film doesn’t offer any direct solutions or pat ending in which she is seen to be happy and recovered from all that has afflicted her.
The performances in this film are all outstanding. Evan Rachel Wood gives a tremendously nuanced performance that keeps one highly attuned to Tracy’s struggles straight through to the end. Wood is often emotional but never over dramatic in how she presents her character’s relationships with drugs, self-harm, and just maintaining herself against the tide of so many pressures she feels incapable of mastering. Wood is as present in this film as any actress I have seen in many years. She plays Tracy as both manic and severely distressed with equal intensity. Some of the most powerful shots in the film are simple one shots of Tracy thinking intently about whatever it is that is presently afflicting her. Nikki Reed presents a focused and strangely ambitious character who is in her way quite terrifying at first. Evie casts a great shadow over the first part of the film and Tracy stumbles into it. Reed allows us to see a “bad” girl who is merely putting on a show because it amuses her to do so. She captures the benefits of being young and wholly uninhibited in how many pleasures she is willing to experience. Holly Hunter is dynamic and exceedingly forceful in this film. She presents a woman who feels the floor falling beneath her when she realizes she can no longer contain her own flesh and blood. Hunter possesses fierce energy in this film that is resonate in all aspects of her performance. Jeremy Sisto brings yet another series of complexities to this film. He is well-heeled and quietly intense as his character struggles with his own demons. Deborah Karr Unger is a strong, seductive presence in this film and projects a sort of deeply tragic sense of loss. She is the most wounded character in the film and this is made manifest through her posture and gestures. She is the dark specter at the center of the film and her influence on Evie is destructive at best.
Overall, this film is a captivating, impressive directorial debut. Hardwicke never forces any issues down our throats and handles the difficulties inherent in the story with a sense of grace and temerity. She allows the audience to run with Tracy straight toward a brick wall and she also trusts her actors to make bold decisions in how they convey the various complexities of her characters. Each scene is delicately framed as the various sorrows are unleashed without pretension of sentimentality. There is a dynamism to the film that is a direct product of how much faith is placed in Tracy by the audience as she begins to transform her life. Tracy is the kind of girl whom one wants to meet in ten or twenty years. It is easy to see her madly successful and looking back with bewilderment at the tempestuous teen ager she once was. This film doesn’t offer any outs and this approach is one of its strengths. It makes a suggesting but this can be read in a variety of ways that don’t necessarily bring any closure whatsoever.
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