Directed by James Mangold (COPLAND, THE WOLVERINE) and starring Winona Ryder and Angelina Jolie, GIRL INTERRUPTED is the adaptation of Susanna Kaysen's memoir about her time spent in Claymoore for attempted suicide. While I do feel like it is a good film, if a little unspectacular or by-the-numbers, I've never liked Winona Ryder that much. She acquits herself nicely here, but her character is rather vanilla and bland, especially compared to the colorful cast of characters she meets while institutionalized. The most interesting (and most developed) of these is Lisa, played by Angelina Jolie. While she might be better known as a movie star than as a serious actress these days, this performance came before all of that and, in my opinion, is one of her best. In fact, she gives the best performance in the entire film. In terms of thematic content, there are a lot of things said about insanity and mental health. Also, given the time period of 1967-1968, one could infer commentary on the state of America's mental institutions, especially as they applied to women. There's also some subtle commentary on the Vietnam War, although not to a great extent since that wasn't the main focus of the story. Whatever thematic goals the film may have had, however, pale in comparison to the character work and ensemble cast. As a portrait of life in a mental institution during the late 60's, I thought it was very effective, humorous and occasionally poignant. Brittany Murphy also had a small role as a character who is involved with one of the film's more serious moments. There are a couple more things that I thought about while watching this, one of them amusing and the other quite tragic. The first is a part of the film when Lisa and Susanna escape with the intention of going to Florida and getting jobs at the newly established Disney World. Lisa wants to be Cinderella, which is kind of funny considering that just last year Angelina Jolie played Maleficent for Disney. Not quite the same, but still interesting. The other, and which is a bit of a spoiler, is that Brittany Murphy would eventually meet a tragic end like her character in this film. Anyway, this wasn't some brilliant expose of mental institutions but it did function especially well as a character study. Winona Ryder's character was a bit bland, but only because she was completely upstaged by everyone around her. Recommended, but mostly for Angelina Jolie's performance.
Review of Girl, Interrupted
