StunnaKrypto Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

Sanjeev Waters A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Kayden This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

Staci Frederick Blistering performances.

wwwvampirerahat My most favourite movie of all time. Veering from the serious to the trivial and from the clinical to the lurid, James Mangold's "Girl, Interrupted" is a middling film that only partially conveys the spirit of its source material. Based on Susanna Kaysen's memoir of her experience at a mental hospital in the late '60s, this moderately engaging effort imposes a detached, male perspective on the author's firsthand observations. Best marketing hooks for this Columbia holiday release, other than the curiosity it will provoke among fans of the bestseller, are a solid central performance by Winona Ryder and a captivating wild turn by Angelina Jolie in the yarn's flashiest role. Kaysen's journal presents a difficult challenge for screen adaptation. Not only is it episodic and non-chronological, but it integrates sharp commentary on female adolescence, bourgeois family values and the abuse of authority by the medical profession. What's missing from this film, co-written by Mangold, Lisa Loomer and Anna Hamilton Phelan, is the author's dark humor and revelatory insights into her ordeal. Pic is unevenly structured and directed, its sensibility only one notch above that of a Lifetime telepic.Confused, insecure and baffled by the rapidly changing mores of American society in 1967-68, Susanna (Ryder) appears to be like many other adolescents. This is conveyed in the first-person narration that opens the tale: "Maybe I was really crazy, maybe it was the '60s, or just a girl, interrupted." When Susanna's upper-middle class parents discover that she has taken a whole bottle of aspirin, presumably to get rid of a headache, they urge her to see a psychiatrist.The doctor diagnoses borderline personality disorder, manifest by "uncertainty about self-image, goals, types of friends or lovers to have and which values to adopt." Without a moment of hesitation or doubt, he recommends institutionalization at the Claymoore Hospital.Film's focus on teen-age girls gives it a somewhat novel angle; classic Hollywood mellers about mentally ill femmes have dealt with adults, usually housewives, as in "The Snake Pit" or "The Three Faces of Eve." But once Susanna lands at the asylum, the story toes a more conventional path. Most of the narrative is set within the confines of the ward, centering on Susanna's interactions and growing friendship with a half-dozen inmates, who are mostly character types rather than full-blooded characters.The clique of eccentrics includes Lisa (Jolie), a charming sociopath who has spent years in the hospital, with repeated escapes and returns; Daisy (Brittany Murphy), a pampered Daddy's girl with an eating disorder; and the sensitive Polly (Elisabeth Moss), whose scarred face offers a sharp contrast to her sensitive heart.As expected in such tales, there's a benevolent, no-nonsense nurse, Valerie (Whoopi Goldberg), who befriends Susanna and brings her back to reality whenever she engages in crazy ("dreamy," as she says) conduct. Vanessa Redgrave shows up in three scenes as head psychiatrist Dr. Wick, whose sessions with Susanna touch upon some of the film's most fascinating issues, such as society's arbitrary labeling of normalcy and insanity and its double standard regarding female teen-age sexuality.Early on, Susanna is established as a girl who unabashedly loves sex, sleeping with a married teacher who's the father of a classmate. There's a good scene in which she's confronted by his wife (Mary Kay Place) in an ice cream parlor while on an outing with the other inmates. Later on, Susanna gets romantically involved with Tobias (Jared Leto), a hippie who's drafted to go to Vietnam and who sees that there's basically nothing wrong with her. She also carries on with one of the hospital's employees, which costs him his job.In one of the film's more intriguing acts, Susanna, now labeled "compulsively promiscuous," charges back at Dr. Wick: "How many girls would a 17-year-old boy have to screw to earn the label 'compulsively promiscuous'? And how many boys for 17-year-old girls?" One wishes the chronicle contained more substantial scenes like this, but Mangold seems content merely recording daily existence in the ward, focusing on the formation of cliques and the camaraderie among the girls, which were not central to the memoir.What's more disturbing is that the film doesn't bother to explain its title, which is taken from a Vermeer painting, "Girl Interrupted at Her Music." In the published journal, there are wonderful recollections of how Susanna first saw the painting with her English teacher at the Frick Gallery, of the impact it continued to exert on her and of her second encounter with Vermeer's work 16 years later.Mangold, who made an auspicious directorial debut with "Heavy," disappointingly employs the same strategies that he used in that 1995 film and in his next effort, "Cop Land." But the longueurs and deliberate pacing that were so crucial to the dissection of uneventful life in "Heavy" prove detrimental here (as they did in "Cop Land") to viewers' involvement, resulting in a lopsided, often dull movie.Ryder is credibly cast as the rich, spoiled and confused girl, occasionally rising above the script's limitations. Stealing every scene she's in, Jolie is excellent as the flamboyant, irresponsible girl who turns out to be far more instrumental than the doctors in Susanna's rehabilitation. Redgrave and Goldberg are decent in roles that don't allow much emotional range.As befits the setting, production values are unadorned, particularly the visuals by Jack Green, Clint Eastwood's reliable lenser, who endows the story with a rough but sharp look. Richard Hoover's detailed design and Arianne Phillips' tacky costumes contribute to an accurate re-creation of the late '60s, highlighted by popular songs of the era.Girl, Interrupted(Drama)Production: A Sony Pictures Entertainment release of a Columbia Pictures presentation of a Red Wagon production. Produced by Douglas Wick, Cathy Konrad. Executive producers, Carol Brodie, Winona Ryder. Co-producer, Georgia Kacandes. Directed by James Mangold. Screenplay, Mangold, Lisa Loomer, Anna Hamilton Phelan, based on the book by Susanna Kaysen.Crew: Camera (Deluxe color), Jack Green; editor, Kevin Tent; music, Mychael Danna; production designer, Richard Hoover; art director, Jeff Knip; set decorator, Maggie Martin; costume designer, Arianne Phillips; sound (Dolby), Jim Stuebe; associate producer, Kaysen; assistant director, Cas Donovan; casting, Lisa Beach. Reviewed at Sony Studios, Culver City, Dec. 1, 1999. MPAA Rating: R. Running time: 127 MIN.With: Susanna - Winona Ryder Lisa - Angelina Jolie Goergina - Clea Duvall Daisy - Brittany Murphy Polly - Elisabeth Moss Tobias Jacobs - Jared Leto Dr. Potts - Jeffrey Tambor Dr. Wick - Vanessa Redgrave Valerie - Whoopi Goldberg Mrs. Gilcrest - Mary Kay Place.

Irishchatter I swear, this film would make you extremely angry, the doctors back then hadn't a clue on how they dealt with diagnosing an individual with mental illness. Not just the doctors but the parents, the priests and the therapists were all the same! They honestly were a disgrace for putting their loved ones in a Nuthouse just because they are in need of help. I mean everybody has problems, why on earth did they just stupidly diss this? It's like a lie where no one has problems but in fact 100% of us do! I'm glad all the asylums have closed up but there's still scars of the past for those poor people.Angelina Jolie, Brittany Murphy (RIP), Winona Ryder, Clea DuVall and many others involved in this film did a fantastic job on their roles! Also thanks to Susanna Kaysen even if she didn't like the film, she has really told her story beautiful for other people who has been in institutionalize for the wrong reasons.

SnoopyStyle Susanna Kaysen (Winona Ryder) ODs on aspirins and family friend Dr. Crumble convinces her to go to Claymoore Hospital. She's struggling to find herself as a writer and had a fling with her parents' married colleague. She's the only one in her '67 class not to go to college. She insists that she's didn't attempt suicide. Her roommate Georgina Tuskin (Clea DuVall) is a compulsive liar. Sweet Torch Clark (Elisabeth Moss) has burns on her face. Daisy Randone (Brittany Murphy) has food and daddy issues. The police returns escapee Lisa Rowe (Angelina Jolie) who is a whirlwind rebellious personality. Soon, Susanna realizes that this is not simply for a short rest. Her boyfriend Tobias Jacobs (Jared Leto) gets drafted. Valerie (Whoopi Goldberg) is the wise nurse in charge. Dr. Melvin Potts (Jeffrey Tambor) declares Susanna has borderline personality disorder. Dr. Wick (Vanessa Redgrave) takes over her case with some big insights.Nurse Valerie calls Susanna "a lazy, self-indulgent little girl who is driving herself crazy." I disagree on the lazy part because she's trying very hard. However, much of the movie feels indulgent to me. Valerie tells Susanna that she's not really sick. The big surprise of the movie is that the mental hospital and its staff are not evil. They are mostly reasonable. Potts comes off a little clueless but Susanna is really just rebelling against her uptight parents and fighting against herself. That's not to say that this is an useless exercise. There are some good performances from the actresses. There is one great section with Ryder watching Jolie throw verbal bombs at Murphy. To me, that's the most impressive section of the movie. The final confrontation is a bit melodramatic. The movie should have wrapped up soon after the Jolie Murphy confrontations.

brchthethird Directed by James Mangold (COPLAND, THE WOLVERINE) and starring Winona Ryder and Angelina Jolie, GIRL INTERRUPTED is the adaptation of Susanna Kaysen's memoir about her time spent in Claymoore for attempted suicide. While I do feel like it is a good film, if a little unspectacular or by-the-numbers, I've never liked Winona Ryder that much. She acquits herself nicely here, but her character is rather vanilla and bland, especially compared to the colorful cast of characters she meets while institutionalized. The most interesting (and most developed) of these is Lisa, played by Angelina Jolie. While she might be better known as a movie star than as a serious actress these days, this performance came before all of that and, in my opinion, is one of her best. In fact, she gives the best performance in the entire film. In terms of thematic content, there are a lot of things said about insanity and mental health. Also, given the time period of 1967-1968, one could infer commentary on the state of America's mental institutions, especially as they applied to women. There's also some subtle commentary on the Vietnam War, although not to a great extent since that wasn't the main focus of the story. Whatever thematic goals the film may have had, however, pale in comparison to the character work and ensemble cast. As a portrait of life in a mental institution during the late 60's, I thought it was very effective, humorous and occasionally poignant. Brittany Murphy also had a small role as a character who is involved with one of the film's more serious moments. There are a couple more things that I thought about while watching this, one of them amusing and the other quite tragic. The first is a part of the film when Lisa and Susanna escape with the intention of going to Florida and getting jobs at the newly established Disney World. Lisa wants to be Cinderella, which is kind of funny considering that just last year Angelina Jolie played Maleficent for Disney. Not quite the same, but still interesting. The other, and which is a bit of a spoiler, is that Brittany Murphy would eventually meet a tragic end like her character in this film. Anyway, this wasn't some brilliant expose of mental institutions but it did function especially well as a character study. Winona Ryder's character was a bit bland, but only because she was completely upstaged by everyone around her. Recommended, but mostly for Angelina Jolie's performance.