Girl, Interrupted

Starring: Winona Ryder, Angelina Jolie, Whoopi Goldberg, Brittany Murphy, Jared Leto, Clea Duvall, Elisabeth Moss, Vanessa Redgrave, Jeffrey Tambor
Directed by: James Mangold
Rating: R
Genre: Drama
1999

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A girl (Winona Ryder) checks herself into a mental health facility in the 1960s. There, she befriends the inmates, most of whom are more ill than her.

Review:

Tim: I enjoyed Girl, Interrupted. It is an interesting look inside a mental health facility for women in the 1960s. I like that it was based on a real life first hand account. It does feel rooted in a sense of gritty realism. While some liberties were taken with the story for cinematic purposes, the movie feels grounded in reality. I liked that.

The cast is easily one of the strongest aspects. The movie features Winona Ryder in a very strong leading role. She plays Susanna well- she's likable, yet from a distance. It's clear she has something mentally holding her back from her full potential. She's an interesting character- crazy enough to be institutionalized at a mental hospital, but sane enough to document her time there and see how truly mental illness can wreck lives. Ryder does a good job of portraying a sick woman. I like that she rarely ventures into territory that would be considered over-the-top. It's mostly a restrained performance.

She has some great help in Angelina Jolie. Jolie gives an impressive performance as a fellow patient, but one who is significantly more disturbed. Jolie is good, teetering back and forth between seeming normal, and seeming completely psychotic. She did a great job interacting with the rest of the cast- she's one of them, but she is also alone. Her character felt removed from the rest of the cast, which added to the power of the performance. She won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, and I think she deserved it.

The other supporting players are good as well. I really enjoyed Whoopi Goldberg in her nurse role. She was very well cast. Brittany Murphy was fun to watch, too. She has a knack for playing crazy. I liked Jared Leto in a small role, and Vanessa Redgrave gives a small but memorable performance as well. I also have to acknowledge Elisabeth Moss for a strong performance as well.

Director James Mangold does a very good job with the film. He keeps it moving at a brisk pace. A film about crazy people could easily get depressing, but Girl, Interrupted stays away from that. There are certainly emotional, difficult moments throughout the film. It does not shy away from the harsh reality of mental illness. However, there's also a lot of upbeat, happy moments. Too often we characterize mental ill patient as crazy, unstable people- and nothing more. The women in this film have some mental illness, but that's only one small aspect of who they are. The film does a good job of acknowledging the illness, but ensuring we see beyond it. That isn't an easy thing to do, and yet, the movie pulls it off.

I did think the movie was a bit long at 127 minutes. There were some long stretches in the middle that felt like they could have been tightened a bit. I thought the movie did a good job of connecting us with the characters, but it was hard to really identify with them. There are some emotional moments in the film, but they didn't even get close to impacting me at the core. I didn't feel the level of the emotional impact that I should have. For a devastatingly powerful emotional experience about insane patients, see One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

Despite the limitations, Girl, Interrupted is a very solid movie. It's entertaining and I love that feels real while you're watching it. James Mangold does a great job with this film. It's a good one.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating- 7.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Walk the Line