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Review by Susan Granger
2 stars out of 4
Back in the '60s, 17 year-old Susanna Kaysen wound up in
Claymoore, an upscale psychiatric hospital in Massachusetts, for more
than a year and used that experience to write a novel which fascinated
doe-eyed actress Winona Ryder enough to option it and make it into
this movie - in which she, of course, plays the dour, dreamy title
role. It's an episodic memoir, at best, showcasing the acting acumen
of Ms. Ryder as the passive, indecisive Susanna and, even more,
Angelina Jolie as a ferociously vicious sociopath, along with Clea
DuVall as a pathological liar, Elizabeth Moss as a severely scarred
burn victim, and Brittany Murphy as a pampered, rich girl with an
eating disorder and an overly attentive father. Vanessa Redgrave is
impressive as the chief psychiatrist. Problem is, Susanna Kaysen's
confused mental state, diagnosed as Borderline Personality Disorder,
is much like that of a lot of female adolescents - confused about her
self-image, uncertain about her long-term goals, and struggling to
make sense of a rapidly changing world around her. Directed by James
Mangold (Heavy, Cop Land) from a script co-written by him, Lisa Loomer
and Anna Hamilton Phelan, the implausibly detached, humorless
narrative examines the boundaries between confinement and freedom,
friendship and betrayal, madness and sanity, evolving into a female
version of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest with no group dynamic. As a
result, there's no emotional involvement. On the Granger Movie Gauge
of 1 to 10, Girl, Interrupted is a sappy, superficial, frustrating
5. At one point, Whoopi Goldberg, as her no-nonsense nurse, tells
whiny Susanna Kaysen, "You are a lazy, self-indulgent little girl who
is driving herself crazy." Right on, Whoopi!
Copyright © 2000 Susan Granger
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out of 4
