Girl, Interrupted (1999)

Girl, Interrupted (1999)

6/10

Starring

Winona Ryder

Angelina Jolie

Clea DuVall

Brittany Murphy

Elisabeth Moss

Jared Leto

Jeffrey Tambor

Vanessa Redgrave

Whoopi Goldberg

 

Directed by James Mangold

 

The power in the performances and the personal scene catching drama are the main take away from this movie. Other than that, the plot seemed to be wanting to do much, but then lost interest in everything and the ending was not as good as it should be. I guess turning someone’s memoir into a movie is not going to be easy if you do not add some cinematic drama.

Girl, Interrupted is the 1999 award winning role movie for Angelina Jolie (winning Oscar and Golden Globe for best supporting actress). The movie is a psychological drama dealing with women with mental disorders, like a female version of One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, but very original in its own rights, as it is based on a memoir.

The movie takes place in the late 1960s with an introduction to the character Susanna Kaysen (Winona Ryder). She tried to kill herself and was made to check herself into a psychiatric hospital. It is there we meet the different characters in the hospital which challenges Susanna as she believes she is not as crazy as the people there. In the ward is a lady named Lisa (Jolie). Lisa is a domineering figure in the hospital and she makes friend with Susanna. Susanna wants so badly to get out of the place, but soon her friendship with Lisa became a stumbling block to her recovery. We now watch as Susanna allows Lisa to influence her which led them down a path of a tragedy.

The story is meant to be challenging emotionally to watch as we encounter people with different mental issues and how they deal with it. What I really liked about this movie is the way it takes the idea of making the nurses and doctors the bad guys like other movies of this sort does. The doctors and nurses are actually doing their job in this flick and there is no bad guy, just people who are mentally disturbed and are trying to manage their world.

The movie is based on the 1993 memoir of real-life Susanna Kaysen. She was not fully onboard with the film final outcome as the movie had more subplots to add more dramatic influences which were not in the book. The movie had a below average commercial run at the box-office and it was not a critical success either, even though it featured powerful performances from many of its casts.

I still think this movie is something everyone should see, as it is something most people of the 90s got to really love Angelina Jolie.