Rating: 
Summary: Oh, how this movie touches home!!
Review: As i watched this movie, I felt many feelings, both bad and good, welling up inside me. Wynona and Angelina both did an excellent job of portraying people with major problems. I am a former struggler of depression, and my goodness, did Girl Interruped ever strike home. By the way, a real psychiatric hospital is much more of a hellhole than was shown here in this movie. I highly recommend viewing this movie. Sensitive people must to overlook the "potty language" and get into the feelings of the characters at Claymoore.
Rating:
Summary: NOT a female "Cuckoo's Nest."
Review: This film, based on Susanna Kaysen's memoir of her experiences as an inpatient in a long-term psychiattric facility, has sometimes been called a female version of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." In my opinion, this comparison is misleading. Yes, there are similarities in that both are set in mental hospitals and both portray the rigidities of the system. But "Cuckoo's Nest" is an Orwellian parody of the total institution and the way in which evil individuals can abuse their power to crush the spirit. It has implications beyond the limited arena in which it's set. "Girl, Interrupted," on the other hand, is a story of healing, of how a damaged individual, in this case Susannah as played by Winona Ryder, can move from fighting the institution to using its resources to transform herself into a wholer, healtheir human being. The strength of this film lies in its acting. Yes, there are cliches (which is why the 4 stars instead of 5), but the story moves quite well in spite of them. Jolie's Lisa and Ryder's Susannah are the two poles around which the film's narrative spins. Lisa is the spectacularly disturbed but charismatic figure to whom Ryder's quieter and initially terrified character is drawn, like a moth to a flame. But, as many moths learn, flames can burn, and Lisa's energy is ultimately destructive. The film's turning point comes when Susannah finally realizes this after Lisa's actions have destroyed another character. This devatstating event forces Susannah to reassess her friend, herself and her surroundings--and to make an active choice to get well. As I noted the strength of this film lies in its performances. Jolie's acting is flashier, as befits her character. Ryder's acting is more subtle, as she moves from being a terrified newcomer on the ward to one of the gang and finally to a young woman about to be released. You can see the changes in the amount of physical space Ryder seems to fill. The rest of the cast is also amazing--not a false note here. In a lesser movie, the minor characters would not have mattered as much. But in "Girl, Interrupted," the characters created by the supporting actors and actresses contribute as much to the film's success as do those of Ryder and Jolie.
Rating:
Summary: The Female Cuckoo's Nest It Is, Yet Not. Ok?
Review: The reviewer below, "No comment", suggests that this film is so cliche ridden that its characters lack resonance as does the plot. Well, I do think that this movie is cliched, but to compare it to Cuckoo's Nest does it a diservice, I think. This is really a whole other take on the subject as was obviously intended. This is centered around the feminine whereas Cuckoo's Nest is masculine centered, and deftly so, of course. Still, a movie brave enough to confront these issues utilyzing an effectively humane script with actresses just did not exhist. Enter Girl, Interrupted. The acting by both Ryder and Jolie are still IMO their acting highlights to this day. The friction between Ryder's and Jolie's characters is in one word, intense. The acting all-around is high callibre and Brittany Murphy(Daisy)is as usual, superlative. Jolie is sorta the Nicholson maverick here and her performance made me trully wonder how much was conjured up and how much was really her. Stellar job, no matter what some may say, Jolie does not overact, but is simply an all too rare and real powerful force. If you don't like Tomb Rader, then you owe it to yourself if you like on-the-edge acting to see her here. I know Winona Ryder is a take it or leave it type as well, but this film, along with Heathers, shows why she keeps getting major roles. Anyway, this film is cliched, but it is in the best of ways as it exploits the cliches of films dealing with messed-up young psychiatric patients and turns the whole genre upside down. In other words, this film is smart and modern enough to give its audience credit as far as understanding that cliches are all to often true, that's why they are defined as cliches to begin with. The film's juxtiposition of youthful naivete and lost/destroyed innocence drives its point home like a needle to a raw nerve.
Rating: 
Summary: No comment......
Review: This movie is the perfect example of false angist "I think im different so im going to act strange so you think im crazy" type of movie that kids love to replacate the main characters. The casting for this movie is terrible and no one seems to know when to quit as far as acting goes. "chick angist", "teen movie", "A shamefull ripoff of One flew over the cuckoo's nest" what ever you call this kind of movie pray to god that nothing else resembling this movie comes out. The characters seem like they strive to be three dimensional but fall flat, in a quite litteral sense on account of all the characters are pretty one dimensional characters. Theres your "no one understands me why am I here" main character that buddies up with the blond "I'm the definition of freespirit and bad acting, follow my impression and you'll get nowhere in this movie" and just add a fiew "We're standing here for your disposal so use us as tools to do nothing with the story" characters and *POOF!*, you've got one teen sensation of a movie. Now if you really want to watch an exelent example of what this movie blatently tried to mimic in almost every way check out the movie One flew over the cuckoo's nest. Once you see that movie you proberbly will never want to see this movie, ever again. If you were bored to tears with "Girl, Interrupted" movie I know your pain, I was to. Best advice is to "interrupt" your viewing session of this terrible teen flick and watch something more meaningfull. ...
Rating: 
Summary: Angelina Jolie plays Lisa, not Daisy
Review: One otherwise good review incorrectly states that Angelina Jolie plays Daisy in this movie. Jolie plays Lisa, not Daisy. Both Daisy and Lisa are poignant and memorable characters. Jolie deservingly won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her performance. It was Brittany Murphy who plays Daisy, and her more unsung performance is excellent also. Both these characters are doleful and deeply disturbed, but otherwise could hardly be more different. Daisy is obsessed and withdrawn. Lisa is brazen and agressive. It makes indeed a dangerous combination. They are just two of the considerable variety of mental patients that Susannah Kaysen, author of the book of the same name, met during her own stay in the institution. The movie is a vivid story of her trying to sort out her own condition while also dealing with the likes of Lisa and Daisy in their fateful conflicts.
Rating: 
Summary: I changed the channel
Review: After endless advertisements which really caught my interest, I made it a point to watch this movie when it made its television debut. I was disappointed. The movie drags, and while parts capture your attention, overall it completely lost mine. I cannot tell you how it ended. I finally turned the television off and found a good book. Winona's biggest interruption, I am afraid, was the time taken to do this movie. It could have had much more coherency and moved along more fluidly.
Rating:
Summary: Rivveting Portrait
Review: This is one of the most poignant and compelling movies in a long time. Angelina Jolie won an oscar for her spectular performance as the movie's title character, the tragic Daisy, a compulsive disturbed mental patient who won't eat anything but chicken from her father's deli. She say's any other food makes her want to puke. Naturally, eating only chicken leaves poor Daisy malnourished and constipated. So a key element in the plot is Daisy's trading drugs to other patients for the highs they want, in exchange for the laxatives Daisy so desperately needs. Night scenes are not shown, but one can only suppose Daisy stumbles around from night blindness. And how she escapes scurvy is quite a mystery. But Daisy's involvement with other patients in their drug exchanges has unwanted side effects. One patient she becomes entangled with is Lisa, institutionalized for anti-social behavior. Lisa is brutal and unscrupulous and Daisy becomes one of the patients that Lisa cruelly taunts. Lisa insinuates that Daisy's father abuses her, a claim not otherwise implied. But Daisy, guilt-ridden over something, is easily brought down by the suggestions. As a narrator and also participant in the story, Susannah, based on the author of the book that inspired the story, is played by Winona Ryder. Despite Susannah's compassionate attempts to intervene on Daisy's behalf, Lisa's taunts precipitate tragedy.
Rating:
Summary: Sporadically engaging film
Review: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest did it much, much better. Girl Interrupted drags up too many cliches and only managed intermittently to retain interest for me. It begins well, and I was genuinely fascinated by the way the film pulled us into Winona Ryder's mind, but after an hour I found myself looking at my watch and praying for it to end: None of the characters managed to keep much more than a slender hold on my sympathy; and I got the uneasy impression that we were supposed to look up to Whoopi Goldberg as some sort of strong, admirable maternal figure simply because it WAS Whoopi Goldberg, in the absence of any real depth to her character. The central character's emergence from the brink of insanity into a mature, upstanding young role model of a woman at the end of the film was rather too sudden to be believable. A nice soundtrack helped, but ultimately Girl Interrupted was far too patchy.
Rating:
Summary: Movies can't get better than this!
Review: I'm not gonna spend a huge amount of time writing a review on this. But let me say, this movie is absolutely spectacular! Everything about this movie is beautiful. It's perfect. I first read the book, and it's my favorite book in the world. But this movie really brought the characters to life. I think everythign in this movie should've gotten academy awards! At least Angelina Jolie got one, and her role was probably hard to do. The roles were great because you feel for this person. You can tell they really sympathized with them. This movie is amazing. The music is amazing too, and there's SUCH an amazing score! I LOVE THIS MOVIE!
Rating:
Summary: RYDER IS ELECTRIFYING
Review: Winona Ryder was criminally overlooked for an Academy Award nomination for her subtle work as real-llife author Susanna Kaysen. As star and executive producer of the project she fought to get the film made-- and got it made without losing the essence of the novel (even the real "Susanna" agreed). Ryder was electifying-- holding the story together with her magnificent eyes -- she was not afraid to be unlikeable. She portrays intelligence really very easily and also confusion. Angelina Jolie, in her Academy Award winning role has the flashier part and runs with it-- but it is Ryder who keeps the story together. She's in every frame of the picture and gives the film the levity it needs. Brittanny Murphy, Jared Leto, Elisabeth Moss, Clea Duvall, Whoopi Goldberg, and Vanessa Redgrave add good support. It is not the novel. It is not "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." This film needs to be judged on it's own terms-- even from the novel because it is is a different medium. Check out the deleted scenes-- Ryder is exceptional in those as well. She is truly one of the most gifted actressess of her generation.
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