Girl, Interrupted, (1999) Columbia Pictures
This is a film only review.
This film, set in 1967, is based on actual events in the life of author Susanna Kaysen, and is based on her book of the same name. The book chronicles the two years of Kaysen's life spent in a mental institution ... Read review
Based on Susanna Kaysen's acclaimed journal-memoir,Girl, Interruptedbears inevitable ... more
resemblance toOne Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and pale comparison to that earlier classic is impossible to avoid. The mental institution settings of both films guaran...
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After a botched suicide attempt Susanna Kaysen (Winona Ryder) checks herself into a ... more
renowned psychiatric hospital where she meets a group of troubled young women including the charming sociopath Lisa (Angelina Jolie) and soon realizes she'll have to ...
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Two-time Oscar nominee Winona Ryder stars in this moving and inspirational film based on a ... more
true story about one young woman's experience inside a psychiatric hospital. Questionably diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder, Susanna (Ryder) rebels ...
In 1967 after a session with a psychiatrist she'd never seen before 18-year-old Susanna ... more
Kaysen was put in a taxi and sent to McLean Hospital to be treated for depression. She spent most of the next two years on the ward for teenage girls in a psychiatric hospital renowned for its famous clientele - Sylvia Plath Robert Lowell James Taylor and Ray Charles. An unflinching work that asks questions about our definitions of sane and insane Kaysen's memoir encompasses horror and razor-edged perception while providing vivid portraits of her fellow patients and their keepers.
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Titles Comprise:Changeling: Los Angeles, 1928: On a Saturday morning in a working-class ... more
suburb, Christine Collins (Angelina Jolie) said goodbye to her son, Walter, and left for work. When she came home, she discovered he had vanished. A fruitless search ensues, and months later, a boy claiming to be the nine-year-old is returned. Dazed by the swirl of police, reporters and her conflicted emotions, Christine allows him to stay overnight. But in her heart, she knows he is not Walter.As she pushes authorities to keep looking, she learns that in Prohibition-era L.A. women don't challenge the system and live to tell their story. Slandered as delusional and unfit, Christine finds an ally in activist Reverend Briegleb (Malkovich), who helps her fight the city to look for her missing boy.Girl, Interupted: After a botched suicide attempt, Susanna Kaysen (Winona Ryder) checks herself into a renowned psychiatric hospital, where she meets a group of troubled young women including the charming sociopath Lisa (Angelina Jolie) and soon realizes she'll have to fight for her sanity and her freedom.
Production Year: 2004 - Drama - Director: Nick Cassavetes - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over, 12 years and over - Starring: Rachel McAdams, Ryan Gosling, Gena Rowlands
Production Year: 2003 - Drama - Director: Michael Winterbottom - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Tim Robbins, Samantha Morton, Om Puri, Jeanne Balibar
Drama - Original Language: English - Classification: 12 years and over - Starring: Shelagh Fraser, Barbara Flynn, Keith Drinkel, Felicity Kendal, Pam Ferris, Colin Douglas
Advantages: Acting, characters and soundtrack Disadvantages: Some parts could be a litle disturbing
== Girl, Interrupted, (1999) Columbia Pictures ==
=== This is a film only review.===
This film, set in 1967, is based on actual events in the life of author Susanna Kaysen, and is based on her book of the same name. The book chronicles the two years of Kaysen's life spent in a mental institution shortly after her graduation from high school.
=== THE PLOT ===
Susanna Kaysen, played ... ...is just a typical teenage girl, a bit moody, t unclear on what she wants out of life and lacking in confidence.
After a pretty unoriginal attempted-suicide (a bottle of aspirin with a bottle of vodka), Susanna signs herself into a rather high class mental institution called Claymoore, just outside Boston, a place where girls in trouble are given therapy and medicated (and sometimes electro-shocked) back into normality.
Susanna is ... more
Girl, Interrupted, (1999) Columbia Pictures
This is a film only review.
This film, set in 1967, is based on actual events in the life of author Susanna Kaysen, and is based on her book of the same name. The book chronicles the two years of Kaysen's life spent in a mental institution shortly after her graduation from high school.
THE PLOT
Susanna Kaysen, played by Winona Ryder, is a weak-willed, languid and self-pitying middle-class teenager. Instead of going to college like many of her friends, Susanna has no future plans other than a vague goal of becoming a writer. Basically she is just a typical teenage girl, a bit moody, t unclear on what she wants out of life and lacking in confidence. After a pretty unoriginal attempted-suicide (a bottle of aspirin with a bottle of vodka), Susanna signs herself into a rather high class mental institution called Claymoore, just outside Boston, a place where girls in trouble are given therapy and medicated (and sometimes electro-shocked) back into normality. Susanna is diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, and once she realises that she cannot sign herself out of the hospital, she denies that she ever attempted to commit suicide and, later, insists that her parents are the ones who committed her to Claymoore. So Susanna is admitted and shown to her new room where she meets her roommate Georgina played by Clea Duvall). Georgina is stuck in childhood and childhood fantasies; she has been committed to Claymoore for her incapability to face the reality of the outside world.
Susanna is thrown into an institution that has more than its share of disturbed young women. They range from a girl who tried to burn her own face off, an anorexic to one who won't eat anything but chicken from her father's deli Most of the patients are not dangerous, but Lisa (wonderfully played by Angelina Jolie) is a heartless sociopath, who takes great pleasure in her destructive authority. Susanna ends up spending eighteen months in the institution and during this time is influenced by all these people and goes through many inconsistent feelings about her need for psychotherapy and her lack of faith in the hospital's professional staff. The 'plot' of the movie of course, is to get Susanna well and find out what motivates her and what lies within her. Susanna goes into the hospital completely clueless and learns about life and herself. Finally, she has an experience that sets her on the road to recovery.
THE CAST
The cast and characters of Girl, Interrupted are vivid and believable. Winona Ryder plays the main role, Susanna in an astonishingly good and sensitive manner. Ryder's large, incandescent eyes seemed to fit in well with the characters indecisiveness. She does a fantastic job of accomplishing the grasp of Susanna's true nature.
Angelina Jolie plays Lisa, the most notorious patient at the hospital. Lisa has been institutionalised longer than the other girls. A very beautiful woman, she is manipulatively dangerous and has no conscious, she loves to cause hurt and pain to others She regularly escapes but always returns. Jolie played a very powerful role, and thoroughly deserved her Oscar as best supporting actress. She makes you hate her for being ruthless and cruel, but like her for being pitiable.
Brittany Murphy plays Daisy, a sexually abused girl with a severe eating disorder. Her father owns a deli and brings her chickens, and she eats them in her room and then hides the carcasses under her bed. I thought that she was the most disturbing character and as a result the most interesting watch When she gets released from the hospital, she is evidently not ready to go. Murphy plays this role remarkably well with intense helplessness.
Whoopi Goldberg plays Valerie the charge nurse at the hospital. She is disrespected by some of the girls because she is black, but it is evident she deeply bonds with the patients and she treats them with great warmth and unassuming compassion. She played the role in a controlled and unpretentious way.
Elizabeth Moss plays Polly, or 'Torch,' a young woman disfigured in her face forever because she set herself on fire while she was a child. Clea Duvall plays Georgina, Susanna's pathological lying roommate. Both actresses play believable roles and are f=great supporting roles.
Vanessa Redgrave and Jeffrey Tambor play 'Dr. Dyke,' and 'Dr. Melvin Potts,' respectively. I thought that it was a lovely little performance from Ms Redgrave; she was only in it for two short scenes but was excellent.
THE SOUNDTRACK
I thought that the soundtrack for the film was wonderful, it fit the emotion and action that I watched on the screen so well. . It is one of those soundtracks that actually enhances the film, rather than just providing background music.
*"Bookends" Performed by Simon & Garfunkel
*"The Girl From Ipanema" Performed by Astrud Gilberto
*"Down Town" Performed by Petula Clark
*"It's All Over Now Baby Blue" Performed by Them
* "Got A Feelin'" Performed by The Mamas and the Papas
*"Time Has Come Today" Performed by The Chambers Brothers
* "Comin' Back To Me" Performed by Jefferson Airplane
*"Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera)" Performed by Doris Day
*"Moon River" Performed by 101 Strings
*"Angel Of The Morning" Performed by Merrilee Rush & The Turnabouts
*"Ranchito Parade" Performed by William Loose
*"The Right Time" Performed by Aretha Franklin
"Sleigh Ride" Performed by Philarmonic Symphony Orchestra
"Adeste Fideles" Performed by Die Wiener Sängerknaben
*"How To Fight Loneliness" Performed by Wilco
*"The Weight" Performed by The Band
*"Roadhouse Blues" Performed by The Doors
*"The End Of The World" Performed by Skeeter Davis
*"Forgetting" Performed by The Feminine Complex
*"Music from 'The Wizard Of Oz'"
WHAT DID I THINK
I thought that this film was a realistic and touching story of a confused young woman. As the story progresses Susanna slowly realizes she must change her life. She matures as the hospital, the doctors and nurses; her fellow patients and the journal that she keeps influence her. The realism in this film is intense - the authenticity of institutionalised living was captured so well.
The film contains humour (in particular the ice cream parlour - "You know, taking us for ice creams in a blizzard... makes you wonder who the real whack jobs are."), intense tragedy, exactness, sadness and hope. A very touching film, that gives the viewer an insight into the minds of those whose lives are INTERRUPTED.
DVD
As I said earlier this is a film only review but the DVD is available from Amazon for around £1.40
Details · Format: PAL, Widescreen · Language English · Subtitles: Arabic, Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norwegian, Polish, Swedish, Turkish · Region: Region 2 Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 · Number of discs: 1 · Classification: 15 · Studio: Uca Catalogue · DVD Release Date: 16 April 2007 · Run Time: 127 minutes · ASIN: B0002Z9WD4
Advantages: a fantastic, thought provoking film Disadvantages: can be confusing for some.
...the story of a young girl, Susanna, over coming mental illness. She is admitted to a psychiatric hospital, after an attempted suicide, where she soon starts to make friends. However, she never truly fits in, and unlike the other residents, she begins to judge them. She finds solace in her notepad where she reveals her thoughts of the other residents. She conveniently never thinks to judge her own life in the same way, and is sure that she is normal.
... ...takes Susannah under her wing. Lisa and Susannah break of the hospital in order to make a life for themselves, both convinced that they could cope on their own. However, things soon turn bad when they seek help from a former-resident of the hospital. As Susanna begins to come to terms with her condition and she realises to what extent Lisa really is ill. Due to differences in personalities and ideas Lisa and Susanna split up at which point Susanna ...
Punkychik 06.04.2007
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Girl, Interrupted (DVD)
Advantages: Poignant, moving, disturbing, makes you think, some life messages relevant for all Disadvantages: slow in parts,
Girl, Interrupted is based on the book and real life experiences of Susanna Kaysen in late 1960’s America. Kaysen seemed to be a little bit ‘oddball’ in her peer group, primarily because she did not have a clear cut path to her goals laid out in front of her that fitted society’s norms. She was not planning to go to University after High School, and was the only member of the class in this position. Her goal of wanting to write was not acknowledged ... ...cartoon Oliver and Company. Girl, Interrupted has a runtime of just over 2 hours and is rated 15 in the United Kingdom. Perhaps not the classic that was “One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest” but this is still a poignant and moving film in its own right. DVD extras include Directors commentary and making of the movie, deleted scenes, and the ability to watch the movie without the sound, other than music.
Definitely Recommended ...
helencbradshaw 07.03.2005
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Girl, Interrupted (DVD)
...thoughtful way, with the disturbing Girl, Interrupted, which many would characterise shallowly as an update of Cuckoo’s Nest, but which is in reality only similar in fleeting moments. The protagonists are almost exclusively female and the entire essence of female mental health is much more disturbing than the more brutish machismo of the male of the species.
Ask anyone who has nursed the mentally ill, and they will tell you that females can be significantly ... ...upsetting.
In the end, Girl, Interrupted manages the neat trick of being at the same time deeply depressing and wonderfully uplifting as Kaysen comes through her test and emerges relatively unscathed from her experience, with a genuine affection for her fellows.
It’s an extraordinary film by any regular standards with enormous depth and sincerity, and though you won’t find it particularly easy viewing, it is extremely rewarding. ...
dave27 31.07.2002
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Girl, Interrupted (DVD)
Advantages: Angelina Jolie, great script Disadvantages: The ending
...book about an academically bright girl, and her fight against depression. Set in 1967, Girl, Interrupted is a true-life story written by Susanna Kaysen, upon which the film is based, and who was herself, hospitalised at McClean Hospital (representing Claymoore) during the 1960s. Her book “Girl, Interrupted” is published, and the screenplay was written by director James Mangold. In the extra features on the DVD, the real Susanna Kaysen ... ...felt a real affinity with Winona Ryder, who played her. The film stars Ryder, Angelina Jolie, Jared Leto (as Ryder’s love interest Toby), Brittany Murphy (Daisy), Whoopi Goldberg (Valerie), and Vanessa Redgrave (Kaysen’s psychiatrist at the hospital). Initially I was put off going to see this film, because it had Whoopi Goldberg in it, and I guess I’m one of those people who sometimes tend to stereotype actors in a role – ...
ihatebroccoli 31.01.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Girl, Interrupted (DVD)
My friend and me hadn't really intended on watching this film, we were at meadowhall and thought that we'd catch a movie and as nothing else was on at that particular time we decided to watch this and I'm really glad that we did. Although it wasn't really a commercial hit it is a really excellent film dealing with the difficult issue of mental health. The film is based on a book by Susanna Kaysen of the same name, Girl interupted. It is based on ... ...goes, the film (and book) is based on the life of one girl Susan (Winona Rider)and her descent into 'madness'.Whether she is actually is actually mad or not is left rather ambigous. She is put into a mental institution which she signs herself into but later finds that she cannot leave until she is classed as 'sane'. Once in the institution she meets a whole host of characters who are in the institution for a variety of reason such as obsessive compulsive ...
gayleb 10.10.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Girl, Interrupted (DVD)
Susanna Kaysen is depressed and unwell as a result of being out of touch with the society she grew up in. At eighteen she takes too many aspirins for her own good and is put in an asylum by the authorities. This is the story of her time in the mental hospital.
Release details
DVD Region
DVD
Studio(s)
UCA; UNIVERSAL MUSIC OPERATIONS, UCA; CINRAM LOGISTICS (SWINDON)
Deleted Scenes, Directors Commentary, Filmographies, Interactive Menus, Isolated Movie Score, Making Of Featurette, Menus With Film Score, Trailer
Aspect Ratio
1.85 Wide Screen
Sound
Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby Digital
Dubbing Sound
Dolby Digital 5.1 English
Award information
OSCAR
Best Actress In A Supporting Role 1999 (Angelina Jolie)
DVD Description
Adapted from Kaysen's popular memoir, GIRL, INTERRUPTED is handled with extreme sensitivity by director James Mangold (HEAVY, COPLAND.) Winona Ryder stars as Susana, a troubled teenager whose confused attempt at suicide lands her in a mental hospital. Once there, she meets an odd assortment of characters, including Lisa (Angelina Jolie), who at first mesmerizes Susana with her uninhibited demeanor. The pair form a tight bond, but that connection is threatened when Lisa begins to spiral even further out of control. Ryder and Jolie's intense performances are just one of many reasons to watch this picture.
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![Girl, Interrupted [DVD] [1999]](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/78517877.jpg)
![Girl, Interrupted [2000]](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/83968413.jpg "Girl, Interrupted [2000]")
