Tracy Freeland (Evan Rachel Wood) is a smart, sweet, conscientious 13 year old. She lives with her single recovering addict mom Melanie (Holly Hunter). She befriends popular Evie Zamora (Nikki Reed) who leads down a road of stealing, skipping school, drugs, disobedience, and sex. Her mom struggles to stay in her life but she pulls away in anger. She doesn't like her mother's boyfriend Brady (Jeremy Sisto) either. Evie's home life is even more unstable living with her cousin Brooke (Deborah Kara Unger).

Catherine Hardwicke is giving this a spark that is more than an afterschool special dressed up with a lot of edge. It's written with some stories from Nikki Reed's life. ERW is a solid lead with both innocence and rebellion. She shows that she's a compelling actress. Holly Hunter is able to elevate her character beyond the usual clueless parent stereotype. Their relationship is the ultimate heart of the movie.

Tracy Louise Freeland (Evan Rachel Wood) is an emotionally unstable and rebel teenager, but good student, daughter of the divorced Melanie Freeland (Holy Hunter) and missing the presence of her father and the former quality of life of the Freeland family. She hates Brady (Jeremy Sisto),the present affair of her mother, and has a good relationship with her teenager brother. When she befriends Evie Zamora (Nikki Reed),the most popular girl in their high school, Tracy forgets her friends, become a bad student and is introduced through the bad influence of Evie, to sex, drugs and robbery of money in purses or goods in stores. Her world turns upside down, and she becomes a totally different girl. Yesterday, when I started seeing this movie, I expected to watch a kind of "10 Things I Hate About You" or another silly teen movie, since I do not read reviews before watching a film. However, thirteen is indeed a dense and heavy drama about a life of a thirteen years old girl in a family without structure, a sort of contemporary American lighter version of "Christiane F." The magnificent performance of Evan Rachel Wood, Holy Hunter and Nikki Reed, the support cast, the frantic camera are spectaculars and makes this quite unpleasant movie worth. It is amazing that this story was written by the fifteen years old Nikki Reed. In accordance with the information in IMDb, "it is a partially autobiographical film about Reed's rebellious life as a thirteen year old". My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Aos Treze" ("Thirteen")

I understand if you don't like it - because this movie could almost be seen as a mirror to society ... to reality ... to what Teenage Girl may go through (and certain aspects of it I'd argue all of them went through, especially at the time the movie was playing). So just because this ain't your cup of tea, believe me when I tell you that especially the life at school ... how girls talk and behave amongst each other ... spot on. I know because of my niece and what she told me .. things I did not think or imagined she had to go through.

Having said all that, the movie is more than just the beginning. Also the very beginning is already depicting a ... "progress"! We see where the movie leads to ... and still it is not annoying or boring any time when it unravels and what happened up to that point. The beginning which as I said is somewhat almost the ending of the movie is quite shocking ... and another shock comes when you see our main character and how she is being treated in school. And don't blame teachers for that ... it's a very sensitive and tough subject to completely apprehend.

There are many factors that play a role ... and some you may see in this, others you may have to guess. There is a lot going on and while the teenage girls play a big role here, I do not think this is just for them. Of course I will tell my niece to watch it, even though she has grown out of that phase many years ago. But the movie really is good at avoiding throwing cliches at us ... a very fine line it walks ... Amazing movie with so much to say. I rewatched it the other day and I think I appreciate it more after the second viewing than I did after the first ...