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Girl, Interrupted Customer Reviews (31 - 33 of 57 Reviews)

The cast makes it
Yes, the movie (based more or less on Susanna Kaysen's memoir, with a few clumsy additions) covers familiar territory. Yes, James Mangold will never be mistaken for a great visual stylist -- he falls under the heading "Works Well With Actors." Yet the film manages to avoid a great number of pitfalls, and it works extraordinarily well as a group portrait and as a chance for a cast of gifted young actresses to sink their teeth into roles that go beyond girlfriend-of-the-hero.

Angelina Jolie was virtually guaranteed the Oscar, since she's essentially playing the Jack Nicholson role, the wild child who stirs things up. But don't overlook her castmates, especially Brittany Murphy and Clea DuVall, as well as Winona Ryder in a generous performance that allows her co-stars to shine. Ryder may be top-billed and a producer on the film, but she understands that her character is basically a reactive element, not an active one; she is the audience's surrogate, a relatively normal person spending some time with emotionally disturbed girls who today might be considered merely difficult -- the movie is set in the late '60s, and we recognize the double standard that boys who acted out were just being boys, whereas girls who acted out were wacko. Mangold, who made a somewhat shaky debut with the dramatically inert "Heavy" and followed it with the powerful if incoherent "Cop Land" (which I suspect suffered from severe pre-release trimming), is shaping up as a director to watch; this movie represents a leap forward from his previous efforts, and it'll be interesting to see what he does next.

Going Sane
There is something fascinating about Susanna, the tortured young woman in Girl, Interrupted. Although she has tried to kill herself by chasing a bottle of aspirin with a bottle of vodka, she insists she just had a headache. But it's not the denial that is interesting. It's her insistence that time is flexible and doesn't always travel in straight lines.

Winona Ryder (Alien: Resurrection) plays Susanna, an 18 year-old during the turbulent '60s. Unlike all the other kids in her high school, she had no desire to go to college, and her lack of ambition has her parents concerned. When she tries to kill herself, they have her examined and suggest that she take some time out at Claymore, a psychiatric hospital.

Introduced to the strange world of Claymore, Susanna finds it frightening. The first few girls seem nice enough, like her roommate Georgina (Clea DuVall) who has an obsession with the world of Oz. But when Lisa (Angelina Jolie, The Bone Collector) arrives, the serenity of the hospital is shattered. Lisa has sociopathic tendencies, and she immediately fixates on Susanna.

Jolie's performance is intriguing -- to the point of being frightening. Every movie I have seen her in shows a different side of her talent. While Lisa has moments of calm playfulness, Jolie makes the audience believe that there's something "evil" lurking just beneath the surface. She rightfully deserved the Academy Award she received for her performance.

Susanna's own perception of reality causes her to flip through life like skipping around in the pages of a book. A conversation with a psychiatrist may lead to a dinner party her parents threw the previous Christmas. These time jumps can be confusing for the audience at first, but as Susanna adapts to her new environment, these occupancies start to fall away. As a result, the audience must assume that Susanna's stay at the hospital is having a beneficial effect on her. But there are moments that make us consider Susanna's intelligence and that she could be telling the doctors what they want to hear.

Ryder does an excellent job of playing the vulnerable Susanna. If there was an award for giving that "doe caught in headlights" look, she'd win it hands down. But Susanna grows during her stay at Claymore, and Ryder does an excellent job of reflecting that change in her performance.

Academy Award winner Whoopi Goldberg does an excellent job as Valerie, one of the attendant nurses at Claymore. Every scene she is in, she steals. Every line she gives is memorable. Sadly, Valerie is a secondary character and doesn't get much screen time. But every moment is golden.

Girl, Interrupted is based on the book of the same name by Susanna Kaysen. The book is a true account of Kaysen's experiences at a psychiatric institute in 1967-68.

A Great Glimpse Into The World Of Psychosis
Girl, Interrupted is a movie based upon the novel by Susanna Kasson. After graduating high school, Kasson went through a difficult and confusing time. She attempted suicide and was persuaded to sign herself into a psychiatric institution. We are drawn into Susanna's world as she desperately tries to understand and get control of her problems. Winona Ryder does an admirable job of portraying Susanna Kasson. In fact, this movie was toted as Ryder's baby. However, Angelina Jolie steals the movie as the psychotic Lisa. Lisa is a strongly written character and Jolie does a splendid job. She makes the role of Lisa so important to the viewer, that you find yourself wondering not whether Susanna will overcome her borderline personality problem, but what happened to Lisa after Kasson's stay at Claymoore Institution.
This movie is definitely different from the novel it is based upon. However, it's been a while since I've seen such an insightful look at what goes on within a psychiatric center. Someone really did their homework here. I work in an older psych center - it's been around for over 50 years. The older buildings have tunnels underneath which were used to move patients, food carts and linen from building to building. People were often institutionalized for things no longer considered psychosis, such as homosexual tendencies. Often times people are released from the institutions, considered cured, when they are not ready to interact with the world. And often times, patients become institutionalized and, although jealous of anyone who finally gets discharged from the hospital, do anything they can to remain hospitalized because they are fearful of life outside of the institution.
Strong storyline, strongly acted. You truly believ that the actors are the characters they portray. You care about them and waht happens to them. Susanna's thoughts about her psychosis and her life in the institution are truly insightful. This movie is very well done. Truly worth seeing!

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