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Girl, Interrupted (8-Dec-1999)
Director: James Mangold Writers: Lisa Loomer; James Mangold; Anna Hamilton Phelan Based on a book by: Susanna Kaysen Keywords: Drama, Biography
REVIEWS Review by Walter Frith (posted on 9-Jun-2007) 'Girl,
Interrupted' asks us to recall the feelings we have for another film
about mental illness and the institutions that thrive on it and that
film is, of course, 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'. Anyone who
doesn't have a re-collection of that film before, during or after
'Girl, Interrupted', is not a movie fan or has a very short memory.
This film is taken at a mental institution in the 60's. So was
'Cuckoo's Nest' (although it was made in 1975). This film has a large
supporting cast aside from the main lead and supporting character. So
did 'Cuckoo's Nest'. This film has a field trip where the characters
are briefly free from the rules. Ditto for 'Cuckoo's Nest'. This film
has a head nurse who looks after the patients along with a mousy
assistant. So did 'Cuckoo's Nest'. So what's the attraction? Primarily
that 'Girl, Interrupted' is a true story, although it is a thin one
with all the trappings you would expect from a writer whom I suspect,
took liberties with the truth because some of the things we see in this
film are in direct relation to 'Cuckoo's Nest'. All right, enough about
the Jack Nicholson/Milos Forman classic and let's get down to business.
Winona Ryder plays Susanna Kaysen, a young woman who displays suicidal
tendencies by downing a bottle of aspirin with a bottle of alcoholic.
She checks into a mental hospital and begins therapy where she is
diagnosed by her physician as having Borderline Personality Disorder.
Oh, the irony of it all. Throughout it all, we wonder if this is really
the case or if Susanna is just a mixed up young woman who simply is
succumbing to the pressure of sorting out her chaotic life with
pressure from her upper middle class family not making it any easier
for her. Among the many people Susanna meets is Lisa (Angelina Jolie)
who has a bumpy first encounter with Susanna. Susanna is given a room
where a friend of Lisa's used to reside. Lisa is brought back to the
institution after being gone for a long period of time (she escaped)
and violently confronts Susanna as to why she is taking up the space
occupied by her friend. We learn that the friend committed suicide and
Susanna has taken her place. Lisa displays psychotic qualities that
make her a danger to the outside world. She has no regard for peace and
tranquility. She is a psychotic. Her body is in a constant state of
anarchy. She has to be restrained at several points in the film and
threatens at one point to kill herself but gives in easily, making her
mental disorder all the more bizarre. Like any film that has some sort
of plot about mental illness, 'Girl, Interrupted' forces us to take a
look at ourselves and ask if, perhaps, we need to evaluate our own
lives. In Canada, 25% of the population at some point in life, will
suffer from some sort of mental illness. Many don't realize that this
DOESN'T mean being crazy. It simply means suffering a certain dismal
aspect on the part of the mind. Some suffer from depression, some
paranoia and some from sharp and severe mood swings. Actually, Winona
Ryder's portrayal of Susanna seems quite normal compared to her friends
in the institution. Director James Mangold ('Copland') directs the film
in a pretty even fashion, building his climax to a satisfying, if
somewhat "all seen before" conclusion. The film is written by Mangold,
Lisa Loomer and Anna Hamilton Phelan based on the novel by Susanna
Kaysen. To its obvious credit, the saving grace in 'Girl, Interrupted',
comes from its bonding of the characters involved. There is a genuine
goodness in the fact that deep down inside many of them are little
girls living inside the bodies of grown women. The film, while diving
right into the subject of mental illness, also has a certain innocence
about it that makes it warm and likable to a large extent. It is no
classic but it is a film that is of high social merit and has to its
further credit the ability to pace itself at a good level and it avoids
being pretentious. Visit FILM FOLLOW-UP by Walter Frith
Review by anonymous (posted on 27-Jul-2005) Well the girl was interrupted,
indeed. The turn of events was quite exciting when the overdose, hippie
drafted boyfriend, and insane enemy slash friend keep poping up
involuntarily between the lines. "Whip lash girl child in the dark"
sort of effect hits when a traumatized little girl slash woman is
having panic attacks over her childhood experience in the madhouse...
by the way, most of the time Winona Rider, the main character, is
either trying to run away from, or solve her interruptions in, an
institution for the insane. And so the crazy captive Angelina Jolie,
flashing her stick thin figure, escapes with the "good girl" Ryder into
a world of sex drugs and rock and roll, only to find out that the
madhouse is actually in their head, and there is no escape from pushing
each other's buttons. The flashbacks of O.D.ing on random pills and
alcohol that got her into the institution on the first place put
Ryder's characters into a daze, feeling betrayed by her mother who
talked the family into "turning her in". Eventually the crazy
constipated girl that is let go from the madhouse and lives under a
roof supported by her chicken-giving father gets a knock on the door
and, having to surpress her feelings towards Jolie who pushes
everyone's buttons, lets them in. In the morning, there is no chicken
under the bed, but there is a hanging body from the ceiling. In turn of
the tragic event(s), Ryder is inspired to become a writer after being
caught and returned to live in the institution. It's romantic, with a
touch of adventure and sentimental longing for a better life. Overall,
Ryder, Woopie Goldburg (who plays the sympathetic nurse that wouldn't
let Ryder shave her legs), and Jolie had parts made for them, gaving
the movie a pscychological thrill. The movie also had the sixties feel
to it, also portraying the relationship between different types of
women as realistically as it gets.
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