A film, A Memoir. Review on Girl, Interrupted Movie

When Angelina Jolie won the *Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting

Role*, for playing a violent yet highly commanding sociopath Lisa, in

this flm, my interest was piqued. When one added names like Winona

Ryder, Whoopi Goldberg, Clea Duvall, Brittany Murphy and Jared Letto,

into the equation and the storyline featured a mental institution I

just had to watch the movie, soon as it arrived. and I did.

Then why this review after so long. when Ryder has been incarcerated

for shop lifting, Jolie is more seen talking about Brad Pitt than her

career. why now all of a sudden? It is because of the memoir, by Susanna Kaysen, which I

intended to read after watching the movie and finally managed to did laltely. This true account, published

back in 1993, inspired Winona Ryder to want to turn this into a movie,

and hence girl interrupted was made and released in 1999.

The Plot:

The movie follows the 18 months that Susanna Kaysen(Ryder) had spent

in a mental insitution(the fictitious Claymoore Hospital(based on

McLean Hosptal the actual institution featured in the memoir), after

voluntarily checking herself in, following an attempted suicide and

episodes of frquent hallucinations, in the April of 1967.

Through a

series of flashbacks, we are shown both the rebellious and

independent aspects of Susanna's personality, as well as the emotional

turmoil in her life, both of which she considers to be symptoms of her

'illness'. in the insitute she is diagnosed as suffering from a

borderline personality disorder. She quickly becomes familiar with a

number of the

institution's residents, who include a pathological liar Georgina(Clea

Duvall), a disfigured burn victim Polly(Elizabeth Moss), and an

extremely withdrawn agoraphobe Daisy(Brittany Murphy), as well as the

people administering her treatment, including the resident psychiatrist

Dr Melvin Potts *(Jeffrey Tambor), the cold and detached Dr. Sonia Wick

(Vanessa Redgrave), and a perceptive head nurse *Valerie Owens *(Whoopi

Goldberg).

However, Susanna becomes most attached to the free-spirited Lisa

(Jolie), a long-time resident of Claymoore who is prone to causing

trouble, and the two women become fast friends.

Working under Lisa's

influence Susanna stops taking her medication and resents the benefits

to be derived from her treatment. With time, many instances follow

(including instances of solitary confinement, Susanna's sexual

proclivities with an orderlyLisa and Susanna breaking out from the

instituation). It is only when Lisa insinuates the abused Daisy, into

killing herself that Susanna starts to examine her stance, starts

resenting Lisa's detrimental influence and with Valerie's help,

welcomes the probings of the treatment. In time, after a a highly

charged head-on verbal outburst by Susanna, Lisa suffers a breakdown

and is unable to kill Susanna. Susanna is subsequently released, fit

and free to pursue her life.

The Performances:

Truly speaking, the movie is worthwhile only because of the powerhouse

performances by the two leading ladies. In the beginning, Ryder's

cryptic yet hopessly confused character seems to guide the movie

through, but it is Jolie's performance as the loose cannon in the

film,  the flamboyant and over-the-top spciopath, that gives the movie

its much needed spark. In almost every scene, she manages to deliver a

poignant and gut-wrenching punch, that makes us the viewers, like

Ryder's character, hate her and yet want to be with her at the same

time.

As for the rest of the cast, they can be mostly termed as pretty

feathers, as the roles given to them were hardly any justice to their

statures. Howevere, they all managed to work the small demands to their

advantages and delivered point-precise characterisations there in.

The Book:

For all those of who can get hold of it, read it. The book is an

evocative read, brilliant, witty, heartfelt and true. The movie often

digresses from the book's central elements and sometimes deletes and

adds instances that did/didn't exist [James Mangold, the director,

defends this by claming that the changes were necessary to make the

story more audeince friendly], giving the movie a more "One Flew Over

The Cuckoo's Nest" sort of drama feel; instead of the inciseful

criticism that the book meant to be of the popular attitude towards

mental disorders. So for all those of you, who would like to read as to

what really happen and find a gem of a book in the process, this book

is a must.

Why to avoid the movie?*

Heh. I know I am recommending the film, but here's a few details as to why one should reconsider watching the movie.

1. After 127 min, the movie's ending though expected, and justfied to

popular tastes, kind of presents itself as an anti-climax and not being

true to what happened in the book, is somewhat of a let downer.

1. the pace of the movie n certain instances is painfully slow. and

the narration in that breath at times is incoherent and diluted.

1. the central theme of the movie, is more like a melodrama than the

factful representation that it had aspired to be and should have been.

however, barring all these, the performances and an  unconventional

storyline, sort of mutually balances the pros and cons enough in favour

to justify a rating of say 7 out of 10.

If  you expecting an inspirational film do not wtch it, there's a no

grandiose arc here. If you expecting a situation where you will get an

insight into what a mental institution feels like, may be you should

see it, for the movie does at times seems like a travellougue. But the

only reason reason I would recommend for any one to see the movie, is

Jolie and her performance,  followed closely by the rest.