User reviews

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.

I found this film browsing through Netflix's deplorable movie catalogue, and couldn't figure out when did I watched it some time ago. Utterly enjoyable all the way through, I was delighted by Angelina Jolie's performance, I hadn't even remembered she won an Oscar for it, it wasn't until near the end that it hit me. Her performance is truly astounding, she composes her character with traits that perfectly define a person with her mental state. Her mannerisms, her volatile and somewhat unpredictable self makes her a bit frightening, which makes the viewer watch her performance uncomfortable and in awe at the same time.

Winona Ryder is great as well, she portrays her different condition in a different manner as expected, perhaps more discreetly, but still effective nonetheless. Overall, most acting performances are on point, such as Clea DuVall, the late Brittany Murphy, Whoopi Goldberg and Elisabeth Moss, they all deserved to be credited.

If you want well-done drama with splendid performances, look no further, and enjoy yourself. Especially Angelina Jolie's phenomenal Oscar-winning performance.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 ****

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.

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.

I though this was a good movie, I thought it was a good length with some good messages and a great story. However, there is not much that happens until the end, and parts of the movie did seem pointless at times.

"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.

An alright movie to say the least, but a bit too drawn out. The pacing was lacking and the plot struggles to delve into why Susanna (Winona Ryder) is in the mental institution in the first place. Yes, she tried to commit suicide but all in all she's just a lazy teenager who needs a little guidance. Not trying to sound harsh, but Susanna came off as boring at certain times. The dynamic between her and Lisa (Angelina Jolie) is explored well with the strongest correlations, in my opinion, being showed at the house of Daisy (Brittany Murphy) where their reactions in the morning displayed their psyches and how the viewed people and the world. Susanna was normal while Lisa wasn't. This further developed the distance being created between the two characters as the movie went on, a great positive. Unique cuts and camera work along with a convincing resolution that left me satisfied for the most part, but the movie didn't know what it wanted to be.

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!

Having seen – or partially seen – a few of Whoopie Goldberg's attempts at light-hearted Saturday mid-day fare, I almost did not get settled down for this one. I might well have passed it over as another one of those films which are vulgarly called `chic-flics', seeing such illustrious names as Winona Ryder and Angelina Jolie also in the cast. Maybe it was seeing Vanessa Redgrave's name that persuaded me into watching it; I do not know. But whatever I might have been presupposing, I was definitely rather mistaken.

This is a pretty serious film: All the main actresses already named above, as well as Clea Duvall, Brittany Murphy and so on all down the list, turned in excellent performances, with both Ms. Ryder and Ms. Jolie standing out in the main roles.

Based on Susanna Kaysen's book of true experiences in the sixties, James Mangold directed and adapted for screenplay this film, which, almost inevitably, makes us remember and almost obliges us into comparing it with `One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest', if only because this film is also focussed on life in a mental institution. However, the two films are considerably different. Mangold has worked well on this one, giving just the right angle on the subject matter, and focussing intelligently on characterisation, such that the resulting drama is greatly satisfying. The clashing and fusing of personalities on screen is highly aware and sensitive, which somewhat excludes any ideas of going over the top, though younger viewers – I say under about 30-35 – might not agree. Careful analysis of personalities evidently went into the making up of the story-line, and in this respect, Mangold has done a really good job.

I would definitely see this film again; as I have already said elsewhere, I like films which seem to have been adapted from a stage-play, with emphasis on characteriology and useful dialogues. In this, `Girl, Interrupted' scores well for me. A good drama to get your teeth into.

The angsty memoir by Susanna Kaysen that poses the argument of whether or not radicalisation of a youngster's psyche could be symptoms of mental illness and the battle between illness and indifference. The memoir reads of the stay a young woman had at the same mental hospital that cared for Sylvia Plath and how she questions everything about herself, her life and her planet. Girl, Interrupted (the motion-picture) waters down a heck of a lot of the plot and replaces it with fictionalised and heavily dramatised events completely absent from the real story, however it benefits from an all-star cast and impressive performances from Angelina Jolie and the late Brittany Murphy.

Seeing this film reminds me of everything that is wrong with adults. They confuse spontaneity and originality and discovering yourself with mental illness. Act out a little in school, and it's ADHD. Act out at home, and it's bring on the Prozac.

Winona Ryder was incredible as the teen who was really just being a rebellious teen, and got caught up in a system that won't let loose until you admit you are crazy, even if you aren't. She is joined by the best performance I have ever seen by Whoopi Goldberg.

As good as these two were, it was Angelina that shined in this film. Jolie was absolutely incredible as the one who was really off the deep end. She was in so much pain, that she loved causing it to others. A super performance by a super actress.

This movie had too many cliches in it - the characters, especially the scenery-chewing by Jolie, did not evoke any sympathy at all. The best performance was by Brittany Murphy as Daisy - she got into my head and she was mesmerzing and I have not forgotten her since seeing this movie a month ago. It seems a shame that all this attention is being heaped on the wrong performance in this movie. Winona was okay, and I enjoyed Clea DuVall very much too. The movie itself was not that great, but I never tire of hearing Petula Clark sing "Downtown", so I will give it some credit for that.

Winona Ryder is a "Girl, Interrupted" in this 1999 film also starring Angelina Jolie, Whoopi Goldberg, Brittany Murphy, Jeffrey Tambor, Vanessa Redgrave and Clea Duvall. Ryder is Susanna, a high school graduate from a good family who attempts suicide and is then institutionalized. The script, in fact, is based on Susanna Kaysen's real-life account of her time in a mental institution in the '60s. In denial about her condition, she observes the "crazies" around her, finally becoming friends with an 8-year resident, Lisa (Angelia Jolie) whose biting insights and bucking of authority keep the place lively and keep Susanna going. As Susanna recovers and comes face to face with a devastating tragedy, she realizes that Lisa's type of resistance is not the way to go and that she must involve herself in the therapeutic process so that she can go home.

This is a very dramatic and emotional story that I admit right up front left me sobbing. Though dark and often sad, it is a very life-affirming movie. The acting is beyond superb. Jolie, in her Oscar-winning performance, has the tour de force role, and she's magnificent. Jolie is one of those people whose once bizarre personality traits and now humanitarian efforts and relationship with Brad Pitt occasionally obliterate the fact that she's a fabulous and versatile actress. Ryder is stunning as the confused and depressed Susanna. Unfortunately, one of her first lines in the film is, "Did you ever steal something when you had the cash?" - if people did a riff on that when she was arrested for shoplifting, I missed it. She's another one whose personal peccadilloes have overshadowed some wonderful acting. These two women are surrounded by a marvelous cast of pros, including Redgrave as a patient psychiatrist, Goldberg as a tough but kind RN on the ward and Brittany Murphy as a deeply disturbed young woman. All of the women who play patients are excellent and will tear at your heart.

"Girl, Interrupted" is a brilliant film and probably an underrated one. It's possible that people who hadn't seen it when Jolie won the Oscar were put off by her strange appearance at the Oscars as well as the interviews she gave about being in love with her brother, rough sex, and her use of sharp instruments. Then Ryder had her day. I truly hope none of that kept people from renting this movie, because it - and they - are beautiful.

Winona Ryder and Angelina Jolie give worthy performances in a satisfactory drama that feels like it's trying to be the unneeded female version of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, but it's neither powerful or poignant. This plain drama with nothing more interesting than character personalities is basically just a recount of author Susanna Kaysen's 18-month stay in a mental hospital, and without disregarding her or anyone else's tough experiences in life, this movie makes for all the clichés and problems in mentally-themed drama movies.

To where the credit is due, each of the characters within the mental institution in this film are completely well-written and you can really see that they each have their own interesting story, even without it being shown. There's a lot of bonding moments and great laughs throughout the film. Winona Ryder stars as Susanna Kaysen, whom the film revolves around, and Angelina Jolie as a sociopathic supporting character. The problem with the characters is the fact that Ryder's character is too average to be centred around and Jolie's character is WAY more interesting, which makes the film feel very plain and uninspired.

When the main character isn't interesting to watch, it can also make sitting through this film quite boring at times, despite decent performances and the character study it's focused on. It feels very much like One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, except all the serious aspects feel a lot less realistic and don't pack any power. As a result, Girl, Interrupted is just too simple and basic to offer anything truly memorable, and it's nothing better if you've seen One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

If you liked this review, check out the full review and other reviews at aussieboyreviews.

I have met several people who list this film as one of their all time favourites. In this spirit, I decided to give it a go.

Winona Ryder is pitch perfect in the role, and the remaining cast are also very good. However the first half of the film does very little to involve you in Ryder's experience, and the film ends up having to play catch up in what does turn out to be a more involving second half. However the pacing is an issue, and whilst the emotional catharsis at the end feels well deserved, it contained scenes which weren't nearly as thought provoking/engaging as they should have been.