Deborah Kara Unger
Thirteen (2003) – Deborah Kara Unger as Brooke LaLaine – IMDb.

Hardwicke’s first film as a director was developed in collaboration with then-fourteen-year-old Nikki Reed, who wrote a screenplay that reflected some of Reed’s teenage experiences. Hardwicke had known Reed since she was five years old, as she had been in a relationship with Reed’s father.

However, Thirteen was based on the real-life experiences of Reed. Hardwicke had been in a long-term relationship with Reed’s father, and she encouraged the actor to write about her experiences from ages 12 to 13. The pair wrote the screenplay for Thirteen over the course of six days in January 2002.

They fall asleep in Tracy’s room, and the movie ends with a blurry shot of Tracy riding a spinning park ride dejectedly before screaming. The ending can mean many things: a symbol of Tracy’s lost state of mind, the lack of control she has in her life, her pent-up frustration.

Because Evie tells so many lies, no one can know when she is telling the truth. She claims to have been sexually abused by an uncle and has scars on her back which she says he caused by holding her against a fire. Nikki Reed wanted the part of Tracy, but Hardwicke wisely cast her as Evie.

Evie is cruel to her (“Call me.” she says, and gives her the wrong number). Evie’s history is often described but somehow never very clear. She lives with someone named Brooke (Deborah Kara Unger), who is not quite her mother, not quite her guardian, allegedly her cousin, more like her spaced-out roommate.

When she was 14, Reed moved out of her mother’s house due to strained relationships at home but stayed within the Los Angeles area.

If you watch closely throughout the film it is insinuated that Tracy is developing an eating disorder which adds to her irritability when she begins experimenting with drugs. Melanie, Tracy’s mother, asks her if she’s eaten or if she’s hungry several times throughout the film.

Kate: Evie kept saying that she loved Tracy, and I felt like that wasn’t explored enough. I can understand Tracy’s feelings toward Evie more than I can Evie’s toward Tracy, because Tracy obviously looked up to Evie. Nikki: Evie was sexual with Tracy’s mom, Mel, too.

drug and alcohol content: Tracy and Evie smoke pot, drink heavily, snort a powder (cocaine?), huff gas, drink something a guy calls “voodoo juice” and smoke cigarettes constantly (as do Melanie, her boyfriend and Evie’s guardian).

As Tracy and Evie become closer, Tracy shuts Melanie further out of her life. Evie and Tracy get increasingly out of control, each egging the other on. The pair attempt to seduce Tracy’s neighbor Luke, a lifeguard in his early twenties, and ditch a family movie night to get high on the streets in Hollywood.

Evie quickly introduces Tracy to her world of sex, drugs, and crime, much to Tracy’s delight. Evie tells Melanie that Brooke, her older cousin and guardian, is out of town for two weeks, and Melanie agrees to let her stay at her home with Tracy. While staying there, Evie discovers that Tracy regularly cuts herself to cope with stress.

13-year-old Tracy Freeland begins her school year as a smart and mild-mannered honors student at a middle school in Los Angeles. Her divorced mother Melanie is a recovering alcoholic, who struggles to support Tracy and her older brother Mason by working as a hairdresser.