Прерванная жизнь (1999) Online

I came to the film with low expectations. I was simply stunned by how good it was.

Angelina Jolie is an absolutely PHENOMENAL actress. Her performance alone is worth watching the movie for. But unlike show-stoppers like Marissa Tomei in "My Cousin Vinnie," merely shines the brightest light in a luminescent cast.

The cinematography was innovative, but not distractingly so-- "Girl Interupted" shines primarily for its dramatic power, not as a mind-blowing work of art. It will not explode your vision of the mundane world in the same way that "American Beauty" might, but it will certainly probe you to question your way of seeing the world-- at least psychologically.

Winona Ryder challenged my preconception of her, and proved herself as more than a pretty-girl. Her performance was convincing as Suzanna, a confused high-school graduate who is eloquent and insightful on paper yet unable to a rticulate her own desperate melancholy.

The movie takes place primarily in the women's ward of a mental institution and follows the dynamic friendship between Lisa (Jolie's character) and Suzanna. Lisa is a kinetic, dynamic personality who cuts right to the "truth" of things. Her "truth" knows no boundaries and she is a controlling person prone to violence. Her piercing insights about people and social recklessness led to her to be institutionalized as a sociopath.

This is not a depressing film. Rather, it is suprisingly life-affirming. Not cloying, not sacherine, but not inpenetrably dark, either. Anyone seeking an angst-ridden portrayal of abuses in mental institutions should check out Jack Nicholson's "One Flew Over the Cuckoos nest."

This film has little of the violent anger of that old classic. Yet it does echo some of the ebulience, the defiance of authority and embracing of freedom at sometimes incalculable cost.

Performances by Whoppie Goldberg (in a serious and nuanced role) and Vanessa Redgrave were excellent, as expected.

With the exception of a few holywood gimmicks, predictable cuts and music, this is a nearly flawless film. Dead-on dramatically, and excellently scripted and based on an eloquent true-story by Suzana Keisen, this movie offers a glimpse of one intensely personal experience of truth. Without the quotation marks, dark cynicism, or pretensions that revelation so frequently entails.

The absolute best thing about this film are the knockout performances by it's 2 main stars Winona Ryder and Angelina Jolie though both characters (hence performances) are very different they stand out nonetheless. It seems to me to be somewhat easier to play a psychotic than to play a regular neurotic, so who really has the better portrayal of the two?

Brittany Murphy as "Daisy" shines in her scenes. She is a force to reckon with in her future film career.

James Mangold directed this film quite nicely from a very good screenplay; he managed to portray all these young women as young women in turmoil. No melodrama, no over the top sentimentality, just a frank peek into their tumultuous lives.

It is a heavy drama, so be forewarned! And a very moving drama at that.

The most striking and yet most frustrating part of `Girl, Interrupted' is that everybody that's been 19 years old can relate to Susanna, the main character. Based on her memoir, the film portrays Susanna Kaysen's short stay in a famous mental hospital, supposedly to cure her `borderline personality disorder.' Set in the late 1960's, Winona Ryder effectively portrays Kaysen.

In a tradition reminiscent of Holden Caulfield, the audience knows there is nothing actually wrong with Kaysen, except that she is a typical teenager, and refuses to conform to the life her parents want for her. However, after spending some time with her ward mates and numerous doctors, she starts to believe that she is insane, but can't understand why or what exactly is wrong with her. At one point, she asks a sympathetic nurse (played by Whoopi Goldberg) how she is expected to be cured if she doesn't even understand her illness. Throughout the film, writer James Mangold's exploration of Kaysen's changing emotions and attempts to understand her `illness' is captivating.

However, even more fascinating than Kaysen herself were the supporting characters. Perhaps the most striking of these characters though, is Lisa, played by Angelina Jolie. Jolie completely immerses herself in the role, and gives a moving, intriguing and haunting performance as Susanna's best friend at the hospital. Although Ryder does an excellent job portraying the earnestness and confusion of her character, Jolie is the true star of this movie.

Adapted from Kaysen's memoir, the film works well to bring Kaysen's' words to life. The parts that were altered for the screenplay made sense, allowing the story to translate well to the screen. Additionally, the length of the film allowed for more depth and details to be explored, which sometimes left out of Kaysen's short novel. Thus, the film helped add onto and bring more understanding to characters which were introduced in the novel.

It's always tough in today's goal-obsessed society to be someone who isn't quite sure what they want, but woman and minorities especially have it tough, because they seem to be automatically assigned "roles" for them(if you're a woman, even today, people still ask you when you're going to get married; if you're black and look big, people ask if you're an athlete). In the 60's, author Susanna Kaysen was in a similar position; she didn't know what she wanted to do with her life, but knew she didn't quite fit into the norm. Because of that, and because of some legitimate problems(she tried to kill herself by swallowing a bottle of aspirin), she went into a mental hospital and was tagged with having "borderline personality disorder," a catch-all phrase which meant whatever the doctors wanted it to mean. From her experiences in the hospital, Kaysen wrote the book GIRL, INTERRUPTED(the title comes from a Vermeer painting), and now comes the movie version from James Mangold and Winona Ryder.

Mangold's first two films, HEAVY and COPLAND, were both about main characters leading lives of quiet desperation; the pizza chef in HEAVY unable to express himself, and the partly sheriff in COPLAND who must learn to assume his responsibility with that position. Susanna fits in with those two characters, and Mangold does just as good a job with her, except for some melodramatic scenes near the end. There are some major themes going on here, like whether Susanna is really crazy, just spoiled, or conditioned to think something is wrong with her, the nature of what "crazy" is in the 60's, and of course being a woman at the time, but Mangold avoids making big statements for the most part, instead concentrating on Susanna's growth into being a little more sure of herself.

As has been said before, Ryder brings a lot to the table, not just being a talented actress, but life research, having spent time in a hospital due to exhaustion(this is why she pulled out of GODFATHER PART III as well). And instead of going for obvious drama, she too just makes Susanna's recovery a gradual and detailed journey, except for those melodramatic scenes. The first third, which seems to be influence by SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE, flashes back and forth through time, as if showing Susanna feeling lost and fragmented. The rest of the movie is more linear, but Ryder doesn't make it boring.

Some people have dismissed this as a chick ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST, which is the usual knee-jerk response whenever a mostly female cast tackles what is normally done with a mostly male cast. In truth, they're very different movies, primarily because in CUCKOO, we're meant to see the hospital staff, represented by Nurse Ratched, as evil, trying to break down the patients rather than build them up. Here, on the other hand, while we're meant to see the system's shortcomings(in addition to what I said before, the different meanings of "promiscuous" when applied to men and women), the hospital staff is generally seen as trying to do the best they can. The patients may make fun of the doctors(well-played by Jeffrey Tambor and Vanessa Redgrave) and occasionally challenge the nurses(head nurse Whoopi Goldberg gives her best performance in a long time), but there's no real hatred here, except maybe from Lisa.

Angelina Jolie certainly has a flashy role with Lisa, the resident sociopath, but makes her seem real, until the movie betrays her at the end. When she's pushing people's buttons, she's actually quite sly about it, which is a lot more multi-dimensional than some have made it out to be. The rest of the cast playing patients is also good(it was a little heartbreaking seeing Elisabeth Moss playing a burn victim, especially when they show a picture of her as a young girl, where she looks like she did in IMAGINARY CRIMES). But it's Ryder who is the main reason for seeing this fine movie.

How good is Angelina Jolie in this film? It is a testament to this young actor's presence that even as dark and soul sickened and gloriously decaying as her character is, there is not a frame in this film that doesn't feel her infection.

Winona Rider is equally excellent as the psychologically confused (or is it enlightened?) hero forced to navigate the depths of her own psyche. The interplay between these two is somehow able to range from the enchanting to the exquisitely painful; but from beginning to end remains capable of leaving you breathless.

Presented with the softly rendered and absorbing visualization of a young girl's decent into psychological insecurity; it is a hauntingly supple progression toward the half understood disturbance of what we might have experienced. If you've ever questioned your own sanity or escaped periods of exceptional melancholy in your life, this film is certain to trigger old fears. But it is also certain to remind you how exquisite and simple salvation can often be.

Refreshingly unlike any of the myriad of fine 'expose' films detailing the darker side of madness (see Roman Polanski's 'Repulsion') or even those with a more poli-social agenda (see Milos Foreman's 'One Flew Over the Cookoo's nest'); 'Girl, Interrupted' achieves a very rare victory in modern film. It conjures enough unnerving insight to bring us scintilatingly close to its most macabre moments; while sewing atop this a spiritual safety net. One capable of the mental restoration that must bring us back to the security of our well cushioned theatre seat. All movement in between remains internal; a lingering memory of personal identification and cathartic resolution.

One look into Angelina Jolie's eyes and you will see the warm, jaundiced decay of a soul no longer battling with sanity. Fear is born of those eyes when you realize how strongly they've tempted your own tired efforts...even as the second look delves closer to a bleakness bearing fruition beyond existential suicide. This film deserves that second look, as well as its painful salvation: a jaundiced beauty whose tragic death is no less healing than the memory of a lost friend.

In more ways than one, 'Girl Interrupted' is very similar to 'One flew over the cuckoo's nest'. To begin with both the films are set in mental institutions and chronicle life as it unfolds amidst those bland, white walls. Characters in both the film are acutely lifelike. But owing perhaps to it being a true story, 'Girl Interrupted' has characters that are much easier to identify with than McMurphy's brigade. Set in the 60's, the film is an account of the times spent in the Mental Institution by an eighteen year girl, Susanna Kaysen, a character portrayed with astonishing brilliance by the versatile Winona Ryder.

Susanna is a victim of neurosis, great expectations, confusion, an uncertain future and the sundry other problems an average teenager's life are pounded with. For all her brilliance, Susanna has the undeniable gift of the cynic and the pessimist, who still hasn't made up her mind about life's meaning and is upset about it. She has the nagging feeling that her character is incomplete and gets caught in the depressing vortex of tendencies that earn her the title of, what we're later told, a border line personality. An almost successful but unintentional suicide attempt lands her in the footsteps of Claymoore, a mental instituition. In the confined borders of the instituition, Susanna is surprised to discover how well she identifies with the pain and flaws of fellow inmates. Here, the atmosphere is sans any prejudice or cliches. Here, everyone is a victim one way or the other. Far from the deplorable world outside the instituition, susanna feels that she's finally home. And it is this atmosphere that slowly gives way to the realisation of her actual needs, her character and her purpose.

In the first half of the film, the director employs an interesting technique of fusing two different scenes and establishing a coherence that not only takes the story forward but at the same time tells us what is already past. Apart from Susanna and maybe Lisa, few characters are generously sketched. This, although, doesn't allow the loosening of the plot's grip on you. Furthermore, the institution is projected in a more agreeable light and the resultant sympathy for the characters ( unlike 'One flew over the cuckoo's nest') does not coincide with an abhorrence towards the angle of treatment. The movie does lead the viewer to understand the plight of the inmates, but not with the object of establishing the reasons that led to their condition. Rather it concentrates on the way these girls face their fate, day in and day out. It also highlights the way the girls identify with each others problems, hopes and desires in a fashion that alternates between being poignant and amusing.

Perhaps the most distinct factor about the movie is the exemplary performances put up by a cast that mostly comprises of females. I haven't seen a film that could hold its own without a single male lead, as good as this movie does. Winona Ryder is very convincing as Susanna. Angelina Jolie delivers so well that I am having a hard time getting over the fact that she agreed to Lara Croft. Whoopi Goldberg is good but her role is regrettably restricted. Constrained performances by all the actresses make this film worthy of being watched. It is funny, sad, mischievous and optimistic all at the same time.

Watch it if you can for it is very unlikely that you would get disappointed. Like I said it is quite likeable!

GIRL, INTERRUPTED / (1999) ***1/2 (out of four)

By Blake French:

"Have you ever confused a dream with life? Or stolen something when you have the cash? Have you ever been blue? Or thought your train moving while sitting still? Maybe I was just crazy. Maybe it was the 60's. Or maybe I was just a girl... interrupted."

Those are some of the most memorable lines from James Mangold's honest, heartfelt drama "Girl Interrupted." The speaker is Susanna Kaysen, played by Winona Ryder. The film is based on the memoir of Kaysen herself, re-encountering the experiences she actually spent in a mental institution after an attempted suicide. The book of the same name was published in 1993; it spent time on almost every best-seller list, including 11 weeks on the New York Times.

It was in the 1980's when Kaysen began to revisit the most formative time in her life-20 years after the actual hospitalization. Memories of a nearly two-year stay at McLean Psychiatric Hospital, a private and exclusive institution near Cambridge, resurfaced while constructing her second book. She began writing vignettes of her experiences in the hospital, writing short stories about a time in her life she had not discussed for two decades.

"The only thing that ever made me less loony was writing," remembers Cambridge, Massachusetts-based writer Susanna Kaysen, author of her memoir, "Girl, Interrupted." Set in the turbulent 60's, the film details the young Kaysen, who finds herself at a mental institution for disturbed young women. Susanna makes friends, including a seductive and dangerous regular named Lisa (Angelina Jolie).

I have never read this book, but after watching "Girl, Interrupted" I am seriously considering it. The film is a powerful exploration into a depressing, bleak situation. When this movie was released theatrically in late 1999, I wondered how many people would want to see something about a young writer who tries to kill herself and then spends time in a nut-house. However, I was wrong to presume anything. "Girl, Interrupted" contains a vivid, convincing world for its characters, but never do we feel awkward while watching this film, but involved and concerned.

Screen-adapters James Mangold, Lisa Loomer, and Anna Hamilton Phelan construct a central character that is both consistent and empathetic. As the movie opens, we never see Kaysen's suicide attempt-there is no need to show it. This is a film about the results, not the action. We gradually learn about Kaysen as the movie progresses, thus the lack of initial character development. Even with little introductory material to establish her character, Winona Ryder creates a soothing, intriguing sole for Kaysen. The audience cares about Susanna before we even understand why she was sent to the mental institution.

The film's supporting cast, including Jared Leto, Clea Duvall, Elizabeth Moss, Jeffrey Tambor, Whoopi Goldberg, Vanessa Redgrave, and Angelina Jolie, who won an Academy Award for her performance, actually develops the mood of the film-an essential aspect of its overall impact. James Mangold ("Copland") has a ambiguous style here, but it works extraordinarily well in this film. "Girl, Interrupted" should do wonders for Susanna Kaysen's book; after watching the film, it is hard not to want to read the memoir.

"Borderline personality disorder" is one of those phrases that says more about the people who invented it than it does about the patient it's supposed to describe. When Susanna Kaysen (Winona Ryder) the 18-year old heroine of "Girl Interrupted" enters Claymoore hospital, a psychiatric facility outside Boston, she is diagnosed with the syndrome - but in fact, all she's done is made a hapless suicide attempt and acted slack and mopey and lost in her sober daydreams. Her personality isn't borderline -- it's self-pitying and indulgent. Fortunately, the film understands this. Set in 1967, and adapted from Kaysen's memoir of her two-year experience as an adolescent in the throes of a middle-class crack up, "Girl Interrupted" is shrewd, tough and lively - a junior-league "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" that never makes the mistake of portraying its protagonist as a victim-naif. She's more like the original poster child for Prozac Nation: a girl who'd rather interrupt her own life, even if it means going a little crazy, than grow up.

Susanna is thrown in with a turbulent gallery of disturbed young women. They range from a girl who tried to burn her own face off to one who won't eat anything but chicken from her father's deli (she stores the carcasses under the bed). Most of the patients are harmless, but Lisa (Angelina Jolie) a heartless, charismatic sociopath, delights in her destructive power. Jolie brings the kind of combustible sexuality to the screen that our movies, in the age of Meg Ryan have been missing for too long. As Susanna and Lisa become comrades, then enemies, Susanna becomes like a space cadet fighting a secret war with herself, and through Lisa she plays out that war. The film allows Ryder to trace Susanna's gradual emergence from her "borderline" state as she confronts the cruel truth of mental illness.

Directed with satisfying authority by James Mangold, "Girl Interrupted" is really about the thorny neurotic underside of a contemporary young woman's struggle to leave childhood behind. By the end, you feel that Ryder, at long last, has done that as an actress.

My eighteen year old daughter and I went to see this movie last night, it was excellent! A must see! Even though I cried through the whole last hour of this movie, it was not a sad film, but a lifting of the human "spirit"! Winona Ryder and Angelina Jolie were magnificent. The supporting cast was outstanding. I was amazed when reading the credits at the end that Winona Ryder was an executive producer. Angelina Jolie deserved her Golden Globe Award, she should definately get an Oscar nod if not the win. Winona Ryder deserves some accolades for this wonderful and very enlighting film! Kudos to everyone involved. A Masterpiece!

SPOILERS Let's be honest for a moment. As humanity settles itself into a new millennium, there are so many aspects of life which we remain ignorant about. One aspect in particular is the realm of the human mind. With countless philosophical theories designed to explain the interaction between the brain and the body, science is still at a major loss to explain it. In the modern world we deal with the mentally ill through discussion and pumping them full of drugs. It's a practise which has been in use for decades in one form or another and it remains a practise which treats the ill with a varied degree of success.

If we look back in time at the 1960s however, the process was of a similar format. People would be locked in an institute, pumped full of drugs, and often for the simple fact that their behaviour was different to the social climate. "Girl, Interrupted" was a book written by a woman who experienced this case of affairs and whilst altered slightly in story, the film adaptation is a brilliant story which raises more questions about mental health, than it cares to answer.

Susanna Kaysen (Winona Ryder) is a "promiscuous" rebel who spends her time depressed and pondering her death. With an alternative point of view to people of her time (but a mind-scape that most modern teenage Goths would probably agree with) she finds herself placed in a mental hospital. There she meets interesting people, both doctors and patients, as she tries to come to terms with her own mind.

Sometimes labelled as the female equivalent of "One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest", "Girl, Interrupted" is a clever film which leaves you questioning your mental health throughout. Based on the book by Susanna Kaysen, it has insider information giving it a solid basis.

In the lead role, Winona Ryder gives perhaps her finest performance to date as she questions everything around her before she begins to question herself. Whether she ever really needs the hospital in the first place, or whether it does her any good or not, is open to interpretation, but from the first moments of the film, she keeps us involved with the character and never allows us to stop caring about her.

In a mirror image of Ryder, Angelina Jolie plays the sociopathic Lisa. Coming from a broken home, Lisa is another of these characters who you find it very difficult to understand just how sane she is. Jolie manages to give the character an air of menace throughout the film, whether friendly or aggressive. She provides a solid character, and whilst Ryder arguably deserved more award recognition for her role, Jolie is definitely worthy of the Best Supporting Actress Oscar which she won with this role.

Both women's superb performances are also helped by some great acting by the rest of the cast. Including an impressive Brittany Murphy, Clea DuVall, Whoopi Goldberg, Jared Leto and Vanessa Redgrave, the acting is always above standard and hard to fault.

In a time of social revolution, there was (as is ever) a thin line between genius and insanity. Whilst people like Martin Luther King changed the world, there were others who were locked up for mental instability. Whether they were truly insane or not is a difficult question to answer. But set at this time of great importance, it is magnificent films like "Girl, Interrupted" that ironically open our minds and get us thinking. Highly recommended.

I started out thinking that in no way this movie could be as good as the book. I was very familiar with Susanna Kaysen's work, and was preparing myself to be disappointed with this film. However, no such thing happened. I loved this movie, and I would recommend it to anyone with vision enough to watch it. This movie went beyond the book, adding likability to the characters as it progressed. Winona Ryder did an excellent job portraying the protagonist, and Angelina will make you rewind parts over and over again, especially the part with the cat puppet, which I still say was far too short. Clea DuVall plays the part of Susanna's roommate, and gives one of her best performances yet. This is by far my favorite film by James Mangold, and as I said earlier, I would recommend it to everyone who enjoys a good story.

I loved this movie from on the first day I saw it. This story is so unique in its way showing the problems many people have to face when being young. The best thing about this movie is, that it's based upon the experience of the real Susanna Kaysen, which means that the story is not only real but also natural and not "brightened up" for entertainment. It shows reality as it is! The actors do a really great job and among other acting personalities we can find Whoopie Goldberg, Winona Ryder and Jared Leto which seem just perfect for the roles they embody. The story, which seems to me loving and cruel at the same time, is pictured by a wonderful musical score and great songs more or less known from those hard days known as the 60's. This movie is a MUST for everyone who is seeking for a deep, thoughtful and emotional film as well as great actors!

First the IMDb rating is much too low - duh! -- EVEN IF you overlook the near-perfect script, direction, casting, sets -- even if you overlook that the movie is engaging and solid on its own, you end up with the inescapable fact that, FROZEN FOR A BRIEF MOMENT IN TIME, you have in front of you two of the most perfect faces Hollywood has ever produced.

Forget Garbo. Forget Taylor. Forget the Alamo. How much of this already great film gives the viewer endless closeups of Ryder and Jolie? (Ryder, for some mysterious reason, seemingly at the end of her star run in Tinseltown, gives arguably the best performance of her life. Oh those cheekbones! Oh those eyes! And Jolie just before she became an action icon in the new century, deliberately underplaying the part so as not to steal from Ryder).

Classic film. See it once. See it often.

Angelina Jolie won a rightfully deserved Supporting Actress Oscar for her performance alongside Winona Ryder in this drama which documents a period of time in which a young woman experiences life in an insane asylum.

Winona is Sussana Kasan, based on the real life author who wrote her autobiography about her experiences at the institution. Winona is particularly good in her role and she showcases some of her better talents here than her showy performance in "The Crucible", another film she's mostly remembered for. When Sussana is locked away after an attempted suicide, she befriends the other girls, including sociopath Lisa (Jolie) and digs deep inside herself for answers.

It's just a tad bit clichéd and the movie runs painfully long. Sussana's resolution is clear: she's not crazy, she just has to find her inner self. Ho hum.

Angelina Jolie is really excellent as Lisa and she makes the movie, plus Whoopi Goldberg is entertaining in her side role as a warden with attitude. All of the performances and a deep, above average script make this film depressing and uplifting, and it truly does have some meaning, but overall it takes too long to get to the point.

After being touched by the sensitive film "Heavy", I couldn't wait to see what would happen with director James Mangold. This brash, barbed, insightful and touching drama is the result, and although it has problems, you end up caring about a lot of people you might otherwise try to avoid. Winona Ryder's performance as a young woman being treated for psychological problems in the all-girl wing of an institution in the late 1960s is very fine; she's mannered at times and a little coy, but she seems a sweet puppet with her wires cut, a bobbing head doll, and one never grows tired of her. Angelina Jolie won a Supporting Oscar as the lead troublemaker, and it is a ferocious bit of acting, but her character is an enigma--playful at times, then cruelly straightforward--and Jolie has to work extra hard to give her depth. I was perplexed by some of Mangold's touches (like having one character commit suicide while listening to the Skeeter Davis record "The End of the World", ha ha); but the sneaky trip away from the hospital that Ryder and Jolie take is an amazing section that works rough magic all on its own. Whoopi Goldberg isn't bad as the main nurse on the floor, but a complacent Goldberg is an automatic anticlimax and I don't understand Mangold's casting here. However, the film displays on occasion the work of someone wonderful breaking through, and there are many heartfelt sequences, quick and quirky editing techniques. For anyone bemoaning the obvious ("Not another institution movie!"), this should be a pleasant surprise. *** from ****

This film is very similar to One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, inevitably, as it's almost entirely set in a mental hospital, at roughly the same time, in this case the late '60s. Cuckoo's Nest was a great film, but, though flawed, this all-female version based on a true story is better. This review contains spoilers, but only of a general nature.

The plot, concerning a young woman who commits herself following a failed suicide attempt, and is 'cured' more through contact with the other inmates than the rather hapless attempts of staff to help her, is more connected and purposeful than that of Cuckoo's Nest. The supporting cast of inmates here are real people with real backstories, rather than twitching Christopher Lloyds, leering weirdos and silent Indian giants.

The acting is what sets this film apart though. Winona Rider's low-key Susanna is easily a match for Nicholson's McMurphy and Fletcher's Big Nurse, and she's ably supported by a super-straight Whoopi Goldberg (as a nurse) and an interestingly odd Vanessa Redgrave (as the head doctor). But this film is all about the stunning performance by Angelina Jolie, proving that truly great acting sometimes does win Oscars (she got Best Supporting Actress). As the ward's sociopathic 'top dog', Lisa, Jolie flits from the vulnerable and charming to the terrifyingly pitiless, conveying more with half a glance than others can through whole speeches. This is one of the great acting performances of cinema history, all the more astounding as this actor, though always competent, has never produced anything near this level elsewhere. Not to be missed.

There wasn't much about the film I didn't like, but the ending left me feeling dissatisfied. The message almost seems to be that Lisa is the problem and the hospital, however ineffectual, is a kind of solution. In fact Lisa is just as much a victim of the barbaric practices (electric shock therapy, lobotomy, etc) used in psychiatry in those days as McMurphy, but, while we can hate the system that destroys McMurphy - a powerful element of the final payoff in Cuckoo's Nest - it's not so easy here. All the hospital staff, despite varying degrees of competence, are uniformly pleasant and well-meaning, and it's harder to hate a system that contains no hint of any villain. This is a true story of course. I'm not sure how closely the film follows the book, but the truth was that many psychiatric staff in those days were honestly applying damaging treatments which they believed were helping their patients. With the human mind still largely unknown territory, this still happens today.

Though this lack of a villain to hate detracts from the power of the film's conclusion, the brilliantly acted cast of real people with real problems ensures that this is in fact the definitive nuthouse film.

This is definitely one of the best films to deal with life inside a mental institution. This was the career maker for Angelina Jolie and it solidified Wynona Ryder's career. The person I really enjoyed in this film was Britanny Murphy as Daisy. She was a person who had a tough exterior but after you chipped away at that shell there was really a fragile little girl underneath. This film is definitely something I would watch again.

It's always a simple task to relegate a movie or piece of work to a niche in the wall, claiming that it borrows or steals from one thing or another. In the case of "Girl, Interrupted," it's very easy to say "It's a 'Cuckoo's Nest' with girls." Looking at things on such a superficial level, one could argue that every story steals from all those before it. But the truth of the matter is that certain ideas are so fundamental, so classical, that they have applied to us for as long as anybody can remember. If basing a movie on a mental institution and its patients concocts triteness, then basing a movie on love is as much of a sin.

"Girl, Interrupted" places us in the eyes of Susanna Kaysen (Winona Ryder), a teenage girl who suffers from depression and is signed into the custody of a psychiatric hospital after a failed attempt at suicide. Like most young people who suffer from this state, Susanna is unable to acknowledge the disorder that affects her. Seeing things from a practical point of view--believing in cause and effect--makes it difficult for her to understand what she suffers from when she doesn't understand what caused the condition to begin with.

Enter Lisa, faultlessly played by Angelina Jolie. Beautiful, savage, defiant, and extremely charismatic, she introduces Susanna to a new line of thought: it's the world that's screwed up, not them. The world is afraid of aberrations such as themselves--people who create a dissonance in the perfect balance of their ideal society. Thus, they lock them up in mental institutions, and rejoice once that the problem is taken up by the hands of others after the exchange of a sizable amount of cash.

Susanna, needless to say, is enthralled by her new friend; Lisa is somebody who knows the inner workings of the world, someone to latch onto. And when one latches onto somebody else in such a manner, either individually or in a group, self-expression and individuality are more often than not sacrificed. Susanna, who was once overwhelmed by the number of choices that confronted her in life, is now ecstatic at the simplicity of her new life in the ward, revolting with Lisa against an unfair system, an unfair world.

At the heart of this film, however, lies a much more fundamental, classical idea: friendship--what causes it, how it can invigorate us in the worst of times, and its short and long-term effects. With a beautiful poetic grace, the movie states that it's not the duration of a relationship that matters, but who it is that you befriend, and the place that they earn in your heart while it lasts. Every relationship in our life is short-lived, as we're continually moving forward in our journey towards a fulfilled existence; time does not stand still, and the film makes a conscious effort to constantly accentuate this point.

For a movie that was almost entirely shot in a hospital ward, the cinematography is exceptionally good. While it's mostly a character-driven piece, there are a number of interesting shots and tricks that truly place us in the eyes of Susanna, and a few montages that are propelled by what I would consider a perfect soundtrack. At the forefront, of course, are the actresses themselves, and no words could describe what they've accomplished here. It's simply astounding.

Though the light that "Girl, Interrupted" attempts to place on mentally unstable people is a little questionable at times, it does a nice, subtle job of exposing the puerile nature of a profession which we could nowadays consider an industry. They're delicate subjects to touch upon, sure. But in the end, the journey is definitely worth taking. When I asked myself why I found the manner in which the story was handled so endearing, I recalled one of Winona's most insightful lines: "Crazy isn't being broken or swallowing a dark secret. It's you or me...amplified."

9/10

Anyone who has ever had an obsession, felt impulses to be drastic over something inconsequential, felt a bit out of place, or ever had in the back of their mind the sinking suspicion that they might be just a little bit crazy should see this film. Girl, Interrupted is rather self-indulgent, like watching children attack a bowl of Halloween candy, or witnessing family members playfully fighting over the last piece of pumpkin pie.

Is Girl Interrupted really saying crazy people are different from normal people? I don't think so. Alleged crazy people are normal people. They're the ones who say yes to thoughts that other people say no to. Borderlines are people thinking maybe.

Winona Ryder's character Susanna Kaysen (based on the author of the book) is the narrator of this story. It is her 'borderline' eyes that we are peering through. We learn that Susanna flushed a bottle of aspirin down with a bottle of vodka. This leads her parents into carefully goading her into locking herself up inside Claymoore: a mental hospital. She goes willingly but reluctantly, not really paying attention to anything because her mind is filled with echoes of the past, and she deludes herself into becoming delusional. Eventually she is diagnosed as a "borderline personality disorder." When compared to the other tenants on her ward in Claymoore however, the more appropriate phrase would be "psycho wanna-be."

Susanna's roommate is a pathological liar who is obsessed with the Oz series of books. Across the hallway is a girl who set herself on fire because she loved her cat. Another refuses to eat because 75 pounds is her ideal weight. So what we witness is a scared teenage girl in the late sixties surrounded by scared girls all rapidly turning into confused young women. We witness Susanna interrupting her own life for a year and a half in order to see in them what she has been, what she is, and what she might become if she crosses the borderline.

Then comes Lisa.

While Winona Ryder plays the tossed raft of this story upon which we skittishly cling, Angelina Jolie appears on the scene like a powerful stormy sea ready to capsize us, blow us off course, or merely keep us company while we navigate the rough waters. Jolie steals the limelight from Ryder while simultaneously making her look good. Ryder holds the show well enough in the start (much like Henry Winkler in the 1982 movie Night Shift before Michael Keaton's entrance), but Jolie's performance of the sociopathic and charismatic Lisa gives this production a needed jumpstart. It also gives us a chance to examine the proceedings from another perspective: Susanna's only just arrived, but Lisa Rowe's been there half her life. While Susanna's borderline, Lisa's already rocked her own boat so far she's drowning, and builds temporary flotation devices by demeaning those around her, but it leaves her dead inside. Somehow Jolie is able to present this hateful person in such a way as to make you want to punch her and hug the stuffing out of her at the same time.

Whoopi Goldberg is a steady rock. While the madness and childishness spreads and recedes like beached waves on an ebbing tide, Whoopi's performance of nurse Valerie lends us a consistent perspective of reason and duty. In one of the more powerful moments of the film, Valerie picks the drugged and lazy Susanna up out of bed and plops her down into a tub filled with cold water. Valerie then tells Susanna in no uncertain terms what we have already surmized by this point: Susanna doesn't belong here. She's not crazy now, but if she drops anchor in Claymoore, she eventually will be.

Girl, Interrupted is a powerful and moving film about what it means to be sane, what it means to be a social animal, and inevitably what it means to be human. It does get bogged down at times in the messages it tries to convey. Still, the performances of the talent supercede the sometimes preachy dialogue, and move the action along even those times when it appears the story's just running in circles.

The plot is not so much invented in a classic way. After all, this is based on real life, and Kaysen's book is a memoir - a diary. It's real. So there is no real beginning, middle and end. We're told basically why Susanna went in there, we experience some of the highs and lows of her stay, and she tries to show us why she got out. The first time I viewed the film, I found myself wondering towards the end when exactly was it going to end, and how. I was not personally satisfied with the rather ambiguous ending that was finally presented to me, but the slice of life presented to us is an ambiguous one, so ironically it seems fitting, if not satisfying by design. It's not some golden destination of sanity that this film focuses on, but the realization that being socially fit to function in society means to be a part of it, and so it is the journey that keeps us sane.

The rare references to The Wizard of Oz are just enough to bring light to the metaphor: Susanna is like Dorothy. The people she meets along the way are like the scarecrow, lion and tinman; friends on the journey to getting back out. Claymoore hospital is in a way a land of Oz, either a daydream or a nightmare, depending on how you look at it. And perspective, for someone who believes themselves insane, is everything.

Sanity is not a place, but a state of mind. And after seeing this movie, I was amused at myself: as if I need a film to tell me something that should be so incredibly obvious.

Renting this movie, I was expecting the typical nutcase/heart warmer and that about sums it up. Ryder has once again failed to take over the movie and keeps her name on my list of underachievers in Hollywood. Jolie takes over as psycho-Lisa and while the rest of the characters are believable, you don't really get to learn about any of them except Daisy, who is out of the joint before the halfway point. I still don't understand the relationship between Susanna(Ryder) and her parents. "Don't worry mom/dad, I'll just forget that you led me to the nuthouse and didn't even drop me off, but paid a taxi". For a self-rightous woman, Susanna gave in pretty easily into signing the papers getting her into the clinic. Overall, the movie was alright, but didn't seem to want to find an ending. Plus, the ending seems to be done quickly and actually becomes only the 2nd in what could be 3 different endings in the movie. That was cool in Waynes World, but not here. 5 out of 10.

Okay, okay... so the movie is decent. The actresses were fabulous.

The screenplay... well, it certainly left a lot to be desired. Granted, anyone who has read Kaysen's autobiography would understand how it would be difficult--even impossible--to follow the book to the letter. Only an art house film would have a chance, and a mainstream movie company would never even attempt it.

Nonetheless, the movie lost a lot of the book's craziness and dark humor, and somehow led the audience off to NeverNeverLand in the end.

I actually read Kaysen's book for the first time *after* watching the movie because, quite honestly, I thought they left something out or I missed something somewhere. Surprise, surprise. The book has the same premise, even the same character names, but precious little similarities.

In short... watch this movie for the acting. Read the book for the plot.

Not only a bad film, but perhaps a dangerous one, this movie betrays the serious and thoughtful book on which is was based in favour of asylum-as-summer-camp hijinx. The author's original critique of the system is replaced with a knuckle-under philosophy that plays into the hands of a system that the book shows may or may not have created some of the very diseases it claims to treat. Apart from a great performance by Angelina Jolie, Girl, Interrupted has nothing to recommend it and much to its discredit.

Exciting movie with exceptional acting by Angelina Jolie as well as Brittney Murphey, Winona Ryder, and Whoopie Goldberg. Keeps the watcher interested. An excellent plot based on the true story of Susanna Kaysen's autobiography on her stay in a mental institution. Susanna Kaysen is played by Winona whom was hoping for this to be her big comeback to the big screen. However, unlike Winona hoped, Angelina stole the spotlight taking up all the attention for this movie in her role as Lisa Rowe (Susanna's best friend), a sociopath, who takes the movie to extreme limits. Angelina Jolie won a well deserved academy award for best supporting actress for the flick. Definitely one of Angelina's better movies. Fast paced and exciting, Girl, Interrupted is definitely one of the greatest movies of 1999 and deserves all the credit it gets.

From the years 1800 to 1960, very little progress was made in the understanding or treatment of mental illness. Part of this stagnation had to do with the fact that religious repression of medical science was still being shaken off at the time, but the biggest culprit was the inability of society to wake up and realise that just because a fat suit behind a desk said all was well didn't necessarily make it so. Given that Australia calls itself the "lucky country" in spite of having the highest youth suicide rate in the entire world, it doesn't appear that we'll be getting over that hurdle any time soon.

But the treatment of the mentally ill in the 1960s is a radically different beast to what it has been since the patenting of Prozac and Zoloft in the mid 1990s. In the 1960s, it was belived by medical staff of all walks that patients of any description had no real rights, and that they had better do what was ordered or look out. Nowadays, hospitals and doctors can be taken to court for trying to make a patient take pills without informing them of what the pills are meant to do. That's one area where progress has been made, and films like this are useful in this way as they provide a bit of information about how things used to be. Maybe in another thirty years, they will make a film about the treatment of mental patients in the 1990s. I'll probably get around to writing my own memoirs by then, so Hollywood can give me a call if they are interested. I have some stories that will make their ears bleed.

That's the one flaw with this film. The results of the primitive and often excessive treatments given in this film are very much prettied-up for the Hollywood audience. The 1960s is a time when such things as Deep Sleep Therapy, a treatment where patients were put into drug-induced comas and given ECT, were thought of as a good idea. Many a patient was killed by this treatment, and to not have such barbarisms mentioned at all in a film that is almost entirely set in a mental hospital is a mistake.

Winona Ryder in the lead role is a bit of a non-event. While it is true that she resembles a lot of archival photos of the real Susanna Kaysen, her flat-as-a-plank delivery makes her patently unconvincing. In a real mental hospital where patients are often climbing the walls, it is truly difficult to believe that this woman would be kept there for the entirety of a day. If anyone needs to know why Angelina Jolie is one of the most well-regarded actors of her generation despite some shocking script choices, this is the film to look at. She truly steals the show here, and absorbs every last bit of audience sympathy. She acts rings around the entire cast, including Whoopi Goldberg.

All in all, I gave this film a seven out of ten. It is just too prettied-up to have any impact, but it does provide an interesting look at how far things have come (as well as remained the same) in around thirty or forty years.

the conclusion of this film ends with the line above, and once it is said a lifetime of memories can flash before you upon hearing it. this film is one of those rare movie-going experiences that makes a member of the audience leave with the characters and their actions still in mind. the film is, in a word, unforgettable and reminds its audience of the people that have touched their lives. it doesn't do so perfectly, but well enough.

there have been mixed feelings about this film, and many have complained about the cliche's. i've even heard someone say that at some points the film seems like it plays as a parody of itself. some things were unclear, and the script could have used work. and yes, i don't what the deal was with those chickens. but the direction (awesome montage scene) and the acting just make it work, it's that simple.

winona ryder is just amazing as susanna. you could see it in her face. she's in so much pain, but all the while she's just a spoiled little girl with not enough in life. it was an understated performance. angelina jolie has won the oscar, which conflicts me because it's a clear case of scene stealing. her competition (catherine keener, chloe sevigny) were amazing, probably better, but not as flashy. still, she captures every side of lisa, from villainous and strong to every bit as vulnerable as susanna, and makes her a sexy character still worthy of our sympathy. her emotional scenes are breathtaking. and what about clea duvall? her character had a lot more to do with the plot in the book, which i can't wait to read. she does excellent with what she's got, but an actress of her caliber should have been given a lot more. moss, murphy, and whoopi are also excellent.

these performances are the main reason this film works. because of them the situations are handled so realistically, enough for the audience's response to be the same as it would if these were real mental patients. look at the anorexic girl. watching her would make you want to almost bite your cheek for wanting to laugh when she acts funny, because you know she's in an extremely sad situation.

this film has several scenes that burn in the memory, and it is because of the girls. two scenes that were incredible: when lisa first attacks susanna, and when lisa is locked up and her silent friend is breaking down outside. unbelievably affecting scenes. the emotional score also gets a few extra points. emotional, not mushy. this movie may sometimes stray from being great, but its raw power and humanity make it definitely worth a look.