Girl, Interrupted

Ok, so that’s the only quote I could think of. I saw this movie much earlier today, so bear with me.

Back in 1968 Susanna Kaysen spent 18 months in a mental institution. It wasn’t totally her choice, but she checked herself in. Her parents had more to say about it than she did. It was mainly because she was depressed and said that she wanted to write. She became a writer, though. She wrote about her experiences in the institution.

And now, Hollywood has made a movie out of her pain.

I’m not cynical at all, am I?

Susanna (Winona Ryder) is a frail young woman who seems to think that she jumps around in time and that her bones can disappear. Ok, maybe she’s a little crazy, but no more than most kids back then. Inside the asylum she meets some real crazies. Georgina (Clea DuVall from The Faculty and The Astronaut’s Wife–don’t bother with that one) is a pathological liar. Daisy (Brittany Murphy from Clueless and Drop Dead Gorgeous) is obsessed with chicken and laxatives. Polly (Elizabeth Moss from The West Wing, Anywhere But Here and Mumford) burned her face in order to hide the rash that was making her get rid of her dog. But the craziest of all is Lisa (Angelina Jolie). She’s pretty psychotic. Everyone likes her mainly because she’s their leader. She can be very caring when she wants to be, but she can also be very frightening.

Along the way Susanna also finds out the inner workings of the institution. They seem to not really know what they’re doing, but then she decides that they really want to help. Especially the seemingly indifferent head nurse, Valerie (Whoopi Goldberg). And the people on the outside like her boyfriend Tobey (Jared Leto), don’t seem to really care about anyone but themselves.

So what’s the movie trying to say? I don’t really know. It’s not an expose of a corrupt institute. So that’s one difference from One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest. (It’s about the only one, though.) It’s not really saying that these places are for everyone, even though it worked for one sane person. It just puts the facts out there, lets Whoopi play her normal, supportive mother-like role, and tells its story. That’s fine, but it seems to really want to do something else. It wants us to identify with Lisa and Susanna at different times even though, by the end, we’re made to kind of hate Lisa. Then it turns her back around. So, is she a bad girl? Or is she just misunderstood? Who knows? I guess we have to read to book.

The acting is what carries this movie. Winona and Angelina especially. They both do pretty amazing jobs in their roles. And Vanessa Redgrave and Jeffery Tambor bring some quiet dignity to roles that change in midstream. Their changes actually make sense, though.

It’s not really a bad movie, but it’s not really good, either. I almost think that it would have been better if it had kept up with its initial style. When Susanna thought that she was unstuck in time we got some rather disjointed scenes that played out kind of like the scenes in The Limey. One scene playing right into another one with overlapping lines and Susanna looking behind a door just to see a room in a completely different place and time. That was pretty cool. Then that stopped and the movie became a very typical Dead Poet’s Society flick. Better than some, but still nowhere near the original. Worth seeing, though, if you’re a fan of either of the leads, as I am. My one complaint for them…gain some freakin’ weight! I’m starting to be able to see bone on these poor girls. Especially Little Noni, whose clothes seemed to barely want to stay on her. (By the way, this is the closest I’ve ever seen to her showing more skin than is publicly acceptable. We get a back view with a little side view. Ok. I’ll stop being a sexist misogynist dinosaur, but it’s in all guys’ natures. At least I’m not into rails.)