Girl, Interrupted (1999) Reviewed by Eugene Novikov http://www.ultimate-movie.com/ Member: Online Film Critics Society
Starring Winona Ryder, Angelina Jolie, Clea DuVall, Whoopi Goldberg, Vanessa Redgrave. Directed by James Mangold. Rated R.
I'm usually quite wary of resorting to clichés, but one is quite appropriate in this case: Girl, Interrupted really is a One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest for the younger generation. It's almost uncanny. But even as such, it works. Reversing the gender focus and updating the general storyline, it's an entertaining experience, though it doesn't pack the emotional wallop of the Milos Forman/Jack Nicholson collaboration. Sometimes it's trite, sometimes it's preposterously overblown, but the performances of Winona Ryder and major awards contender Angelina Jolie pull you through it.
Ryder plays Susanna, a deeply troubled high school senior who is admitted to Claymoore, an upscale mental institution after she downs a bottle of aspirin followed by a bottle of vodka. Though she claims she wasn't trying to commit suicide ("I had a headache!"), her parents insist that she gets help. So off to Claymoore she goes, predictably finding herself to be the only remotely "sane" one there.
Susanna forms a peculiar friendship with Lisa (Angelina Jolie), a psycho with a soft side. They and some other girls sneak off to a hidden room at night for some female bonding, as well as to the head psychiatrist office to secretly look at their patient profiles. Lisa furiously rebels against the system every chance she gets, from slyly eluding having to swallow her pills to running off from the hospital. Since Susanna took to Lisa quite well, she tags along with Lisa on some of her escapades, getting herself into some trouble along the way.
The movie makes a big deal about its title in the beginning, but by the end it's still unclear how Susanna is a "girl interrupted." But no matter. This isn't a particularly profound meditation on the human spirit confined in a mental institution anyway. The scenes in the hospital generate audience sympathy in precisely the way you'd expect them to. It's manipulative, yes, but it's also well made, turning a potentially shameless sap-fest into enjoyable fluff.
The movie works well because Susanna herself is such an engaging personality. When head nurse Whoopi Goldberg throws her into a bathtub and tells her that she is letting her life waste away in that damn hospital, we believe that she is telling the gospel truth. We see Susanna as an impressionable young woman; putting up the facade of a rebel but a faithful follower on the inside. Her doctors and parents tell her that she is crazy, so she believes she must be. She never makes an attempt to legitimately get herself out of a mental institution. Instead, she blindly follows the clearly disturbed Lisa down a path that could never in a million years lead to any good.
The clincher is the lead actresses. Though Ryder gives a great, subdued performance as (I guess) the title character, she's clearly going to be upstaged by co-star Jolie's much flashier turn as Ryder's spunky friend. I agree that Jolie was spectacular; definitely more noticeable than Winona's. Her performance jumps off the screen while Winona's stays there humbly. It surprises me, however, how the lead actress, without whom there would be no movie, turns in a terrific piece of acting and yet gets ignored. It reminds me of Shakespeare in Love, which was nominated for every award in every category except for lead actor Joseph Fiennes who was the life and soul of the film.
Without being particularly deep or, god forbid, ponderous, Girl, Interrupted engages the mind. Although its ultimate point never really becomes clear, it's an interesting little movie while it lasts.
Grade: B
©2000 Eugene Novikov
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ Before you buy.
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews