Girl, Interrupted (film)?qsrc=3044

Girl, Interrupted
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	James Mangold
Produced by	Douglas Wick Winona Ryder
Written by	James Mangold Lisa Loomer Anna Hamilton Phelan
Starring	Winona Ryder Angelina Jolie Clea DuVall Brittany Murphy Jared Leto Elisabeth Moss Travis Fine Vanessa Redgrave Whoopi Goldberg
Music by	Mychael Danna
Cinematography	Jack N. Green
Editing by	Kevin Tent
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date(s)	December 21, 1999 (1999-12-21)
Running time	127 minutes
Country	United States Germany
Language	English
Budget	$24 million
Gross revenue	$48,350,205[1]

Girl, Interrupted is a 1999 drama film about a teenager's 18-month stay at a mental institution, starring Winona Ryder, Brittany Murphy, Angelina Jolie, Whoopi Goldberg and Vanessa Redgrave. It was adapted from the original memoir of the same name, written by Susanna Kaysen. The film was directed by James Mangold, from a screenplay written by Mangold, Anna Hamilton Phelan and Lisa Loomer.

Plot

Susanna Kaysen (Winona Ryder), 18 years old in April 1967, "voluntarily" (her parents essentially force her to go there, and she is not free to leave until the staff approves her release) checks herself into Claymoore Hospital after an overdose of aspirin and her stay extends for over a year. She denies the accusation from many that she was attempting to commit suicide. Nurses and therapists are surprised when Susanna acknowledges that she does not actually want to go to college and would like to become a writer.

She befriends fellow patients Polly "Torch" Clark (Elisabeth Moss), Georgina Tuskin (Clea DuVall), Daisy Randone (Brittany Murphy), Janet Webber (Angela Bettis), Cynthia Crowley (Jillian Armenante) and forms a small troupe of troubled women in her ward. Susanna is enchanted in particular by Lisa Rowe (Angelina Jolie) when she sees her cause a scene. When Lisa returns to the ward after running away she notices that her old best friend's place has been taken by Susanna. She demands to know what happened to her best friend, eventually realising that she had committed suicide. Lisa befriends Susanna and the two start causing trouble. Lisa encourages Susanna to stop taking her medications and/or trade them with others, and generally resist the influences of therapy.

During a visit outside the ward at a nearby ice cream shop, Susanna is confronted by her mother's friend, the angry wife of a man Susanna had an affair with, and her daughter. The woman harshly berates Susanna, but Lisa intervenes with a verbal assault, horrifying the older woman. As a result, Lisa loses her outside privileges.

Susanna's former boyfriend, Tobias "Toby" Jacobs (Jared Leto), comes to visit her. He tells her he wants them to run away to Canada together. He tells her she isn't crazy and that the girls in the asylum aren't really her friends. But she refuses to go with him.

It is shown that Polly observes the couple almost wistfully as they speak outside, perhaps reflecting on her own unatractiveness and how it has impeded her from having such devotion from a man. That night, she awakes screaming. The nurses remove her and place her into solitary confinement with the intention of calming her down, but she continues sobbing. After all of the staff went to bed Susanna steals a guitar and she and Lisa sit outside Polly's room, singing "Downtown" by Petula Clark. Eventually a male orderly notices and Susanna seduces him in order for him not to report the incident, they fall asleep outside of Polly's room. In the morning, Valerie Owens, the RN (Whoopi Goldberg) sees the two, she exclaims she is sick of her promiscuity and is referring her to the therapists.

The next morning, Susanna is called into the therapists office, where she is analyzed once more. Susanna meets the head psychiatrist, Dr. Sonia Wick (Vanessa Redgrave), and attempts to shut her out with a nasty attitude. Wick decides to have Susanna be her patient from now on. She is diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. Lisa is also taken in to see the doctor but doesn't return, and Susanna falls into a depression. The frustrated nurse, Valerie, has had enough and throws Susanna into a cold bath to wake her. Susanna attacks her verbally.

Lisa returns, and she and Susanna break out of Claymoore. After hitching a ride, they spend the night at the house of the recently released Daisy, whom Lisa antagonizes in her usual fashion. She accuses Daisy of having incestual sex with her father. It is revealed that Daisy continues cutting herself. Perhaps as a reaction to Lisa's words, Daisy hangs herself the next morning. Lisa runs away before anything could happen, trying to convince Susanna to come with her but she is mortified and stays. Susanna calls the police and returns to the hospital. Susanna also adopts Daisy's cat, Ruby. In the next few weeks, she begins to cooperate with her doctors and responds to her therapy, writing and painting. She is scheduled to be released.

At that point, Lisa is caught and returned by the police. Upon finding out about Susanna's pending release, Lisa targets Susanna for ridicule and emotional abuse. On her last night, Susanna awakens to discover Lisa in the maze of corridors beneath the ward, reading Susanna's diary to Georgina and Polly, including all of the private thoughts and comments she has made about the other residents, including how she thought Lisa was already dead, which she eventually declares to her. The other girls turn on Susanna, with Lisa particularly vicious. In the ensuing dispute Lisa threatens to stab herself with a large hypodermic needle, but Susanna disarms her. Susanna then launches a pointed verbal attack upon Lisa. Her words having hit home, Lisa suffers a nervous breakdown. Susanna and Lisa reconcile and are found by the staff.

Susanna is released the next day. Before she leaves, she visits Lisa and talks to her again, telling her that she will get out and that she must come and see her. As Susanna leaves, she says goodbye to all her friends, giving Polly her adopted cat Ruby, reconciling with Georgina and gets into the cab. At the end of the film, Susanna states that by the 1970s, most of her friends were released and some she saw and some never again.

Cast

• Winona Ryder as Susanna Kaysen
• Angelina Jolie as Lisa Rowe a sociopath. Lisa is a force to be reckoned with: she is magnetic, rebellious, won't take her medication and verbally abuses the other patients.
• Clea DuVall as Georgina Tuskin a pathological liar.
• Brittany Murphy as Daisy Randone a sexually abused girl with an eating disorder who cuts herself.
• Elisabeth Moss as Polly "Torch" Clark a burn victim.
• Travis Fine as John an orderly with a liking for Susanna.
• Jared Leto as Tobias "Toby" Jacobs
• Jeffrey Tambor as Dr. Melvin Potts
• Vanessa Redgrave as Dr. Sonia Wick
• Whoopi Goldberg as Valerie Owens, RN
• Angela Bettis as Janet Webber, an anorexic
• Jillian Armenante as Cynthia Crowley whose only disorder seems to be a proclivity to dress like men and is there because her parents don't want to see her.
• Joanna Kerns as Annette Kaysen
• Bruce Altman as Professor Gilcrest
• Mary Kay Place as Barbara Gilcrest
• Ray Baker as Carl Kaysen
• KaDee Strickland as Bonnie Gilcrest
• Larry Graeff as the head grounds keeper
• Kurtwood Smith as Dr. Crumble
• Alison Claire as Nurse Gretta

Production

In a 2000 Charlie Rose interview, Ryder revealed her strong passion to produce the film, indicating that it took seven years to get to the screen. After reading the book, Ryder immediately tried to secure the rights, however a week earlier they had been purchased by Douglas Wick. Ryder then decided to team up with Wick along with her manager Carol Bodie, who acted as executive producer along with Ryder. Ryder also stated that she tried hard to persuade James Mangold to direct the film, who was reluctant at first. She states that Mangold was the right man for the role as director after she saw his directorial debut Heavy, which explored similar themes to Girl, Interrupted.

Filming

Filming took place along Main Street in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, as well as in Harrisburg State Hospital in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Mechanicsburg was chosen for its old fashioned appearance and its old style drug store simply titled "Drugs," all of which gave the film its time-dated appearance. A shot seen in the trailer shows the van traveling towards downtown Harrisburg over the State Street Bridge, where the Capitol building is clearly visible.^[2] Deleted scenes were also filmed at Reading's Public Museum.

Reception

Critical response

Girl Interrupted currently holds a rating of 51% on Rotten Tomatoes,^[3] and a rating of 51 on Metacritic,^[4] indicating largely mixed reviews from critics.

Stephen Holden in the New York Times wrote; ‘Girl, Interrupted is a small, intense period piece with a hardheaded tough-love attitude toward lazy, self-indulgent little girls flirting with madness: You can drive yourself crazy, or you can get over it. The choice is yours.’ ^[5]

Tom Coates from the BBC wrote; ‘Girl, Interrupted is a decent adaptation of her memoir of this period, neatened up and polished for an audience more familiar with gloss than grit.’ ^[6]

Author opinion

The author, Susanna Kaysen, was among the detractors of the film, accusing Mangold of adding "melodramatic drivel" to the story by inventing plot points that never happened in the book (such as Lisa and Susanna running away together).^[7]

Accolades

• Academy Awards
  • Best Actress in a Supporting Role — Angelina Jolie
• Golden Globe Award
  • Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture — Angelina Jolie
• Screen Actors Guild Award
  • Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role — Angelina Jolie

Soundtrack

1. Merrilee Rush performing "Angel of the Morning"
2. Petula Clark performing "Downtown"
3. Skeeter Davis performing "The End of the World"
4. Aretha Franklin performing "The Right Time"
5. Jefferson Airplane performing "Comin' Back to Me"
6. Them performing "It's All Over Now Baby Blue"
7. The Chambers Brothers performing "Time Has Come Today'"
8. The Band performing "The Weight"
9. The Mamas & the Papas performing "Got a Feeling"
10. Wilco performing "How to Fight Loneliness"
11. Simon & Garfunkel performing "Bookends Theme"

See also

• Borderline personality disorder
• Personality disorder
• Mental illness in films

References

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Girl, Interrupted

• Girl, Interrupted at the Internet Movie Database
• Girl, Interrupted at Allmovie
• Girl, Interrupted at Rotten Tomatoes