Product Description: After a botched suicide attempt susanna kaysen checks herself into a renowned psychiatric hospital where she meets a group of troubled young women including the charming sociopath lisa and soon realizes shell have to fight for her sanity and her freedom. Studio: Sony Pictures Home Ent Release Date: 12/21/2004 Starring: Winona Ryder Whoopi Goldberg Run time: 127 minutes Rating: R Director: James Mangold
Amazon.com: Based on Susanna Kaysen's acclaimed journal-memoir, Girl, Interrupted bears inevitable resemblance to One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and pale comparison to that earlier classic is impossible to avoid. The mental institution settings of both films guarantee a certain degree of déjà vu and at least one Oscar winner (in this case, Angelina Jolie), since playing a loony is any actor's dream gig. Unfortunately, director James Mangold seems to have misplaced the depth and delicacy of his underrated debut, Heavy, despite a great deal of earnest effort by everyone involved. It's easy to see why Winona Ryder chose to star in (and executive-produce) this nearly worthy adaptation of Kaysen's book, since it's a strong vehicle for female casting and potent drama. Mangold certainly got the former; whether he succeeded with the latter is not so clear.
To be sure, Ryder conveys the confusion and chaos that signified Kaysen's life during nearly 18 months of voluntary institutionalization beginning in 1967. But the film seems too eager to embrace the cliché that the "crazies" of the Claymoore women's ward are saner than the war-torn world outside, and lack of narrative focus gives way to semipredictable character study. Susanna (Ryder) is labeled with "borderline personality disorder," a diagnosis as ambiguous as her own emotions, and while Jolie chews the scenery as the resident bad-girl sociopath, Ryder effectively conveys an odyssey from vulnerable fear to self-awareness and, finally, to healing. The ensemble cast is uniformly superb, making this drama well worthwhile, even as it treads familiar territory. If it ultimately lacks dramatic impact, Girl, Interrupted makes it painfully clear that the boundaries of dysfunction are hazy in a world where everyone's crazy once in a while. --Jeff Shannon
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - Great to revisit, over and over
While the fantastic performance of Ms. Jolie won an Oscar, deservedly, and jumpstarted her sensational career, the performance of Winona Ryder has somehow, and unjustly, been neglected- She is astonishingly ... Read More
Rating: - beautiful team!
Angelina Jolie and Winona Ryder make a beautiful team in this psycho movie! They act amazingly in this and so convincing! You feel the pain and the torture they are going through to understand their lives! Enjoy ... Read More
Rating: - Girl, Interrupted
It was an interesting movie, however I was looking for something which more was more educational reguarding Borderline Personalities. Fun Viewing, though.
Rating: - A Cautionary Tale of Insanity and Adolescence
"In 1969 the wild ones went to Woodstock; the unlucky ones went to war but if you didn't know where you were going, they sent you to Claymoore." Such was the provocative opening to the theatrical trailer for the ... Read More
Rating: - Not crazy to love this !!!
Girl, Interrupted
I first saw this movie back in 2002 on a free VCD I had got. I remember buying it simply because Winona Ryder was in it, not knowing anything about the movie at all. At that first viewing ... Read More
- Great to revisit, over and over