Writer and director Catherine Hardwicke's new film, "Thirteen," could serve as a photographic form of birth control. Intended or not, the film's portrayal of two rebellious 13-year-old girls is enough to make anyone think thrice about having kids.

When Tracy (Evan Rachel Wood) arrives at junior high school, she quickly finds -- like most of us did -- that she was ill-prepared from a social standpoint. She still wore little girls' clothes and her frilly bedroom was chock full of stuffed animals. When she spies the school vixen Evie (Nikki Reed, who co-wrote the film), she sets her sights on emulating the popular girl and her friends.

Out go the old clothes and soon she's buddies with Evie. Next comes shoplifting for clothes, getting various piercings -- both professional and home-made, experimenting with drugs and slipping out at night to hang with older boys at the park.

Both Evie and Tracy come from difficult homes. Evie lives with a woman she says is her cousin. Cynthia (Cynthia Ettinger) is an aging model -- and extremely permissive guardian -- living between paychecks and spending her dough on plastic surgeries.

Tracy's mom Melanie (Holly Hunter) has had problems of her own, including an on-again/off-again relationship with her boyfriend Brady (Jeremy Sisto), who seems to have had some sort of collision with Tracy, although it's never clear exactly why she hates him. She seems to hate her dad because of his inattentiveness and his focus on his career.

Melanie is unprepared to cope with the changes in her daughter and Tracy seems unwilling to accept advice or assistance as she heads down a fast road to destruction. The question is can anyone save the family? Can anyone save Tracy?

Hunter turns up the heat for this performance where she needs to be a tough disciplinarian as she sees her daughter making the same mistakes she made. But she's also sensitive and caring and distraught at her own inability to solve her daughter's problem. Her impassioned performance is the film's sole bright spot.

Most other performances are little more than rote, the outcome feels predictable and some of the dialogue is cliched.

"Thirteen" opens Fri., Sept. 19 at Landmark's Downer Theatre.