Rating: 
Summary: Outstanding film!!
Review: Angelina Jolie's performance is definately worthy of the academy award that she won. Ryder's understated, but powerfull performance is worthy of note. The film is the "One Flew over the Cuckoos Nest!" of the new century. It is well worth your time and money.
Rating: 
Summary: Mental Health Memoir
Review: Winona Ryder stars as Susanna Kaysen, whose voluntary stint in a mental hospital in the late 60's was the basis of her memoir on which the film is based. Susanna enters Claymore after she tries to commit suicide by taking a whole bottle of aspirin. She is placed on a floor with people she deems to be actually crazy. Her roommate, Georgina is a pathological liar while other residents include a girl who burned herself to disfiguration, an anorexic, and Linda, a sociopath. Linda is played by Angelina Jolie with manic fervor. She chews up every scene she's in and is a commanding presence. As Susanna goes through a year and half of therapy, she starts off as rebellious and skeptical of her diagnosis of borderline personality disorder, but then comes to grips with her own fears and problems. Vanessa Redgrave and Jeffrey Tambor play psychiatrists and Whoopi Goldberg is a nurse on Susanna's floor. While Ms. Jolie scored a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role, it is Ms. Ryder who holds this film together. Her understated performance perfectly captures the confusion that the real Susanna must have been going through. Girl, Interrupted has a powerful message, but is a bit too long and drags in places.
Rating:
Summary: Please don't interrupt this movie
Review: Girl, Interrupted was a great movie that is geared to the female teen audience, but enjoyed by all. When i first saw this movie in the theater, I was a little pessimistic about what the plot of the movie would consist of. But after watching the whole thing with an open eye, I decided that it was definately a must see flick. Wynonna Rider and Angelina Jolie both play excellent roles depicting the types of characters that could be in a mental institute. Both seemed rather sain, compared to the others in their group of friends, but they still had something that they were keeping inside and that was ready to burst to the surface. Susanna (Rider), played the role of a diagnosed patient with "borderline personality disorder". Her case seemed very mild to what the disorder can consist of, but all in all, the point was made. Lisa (Jolie) played the role of the "bad girl" sociopath and the leader of the institute. Susanna spends her time trying to figure out what is wrong with her, and tells her self that she doesn't belong. After working through problems and events that occur throughout the movie, Susanna finds her self and eventually admits her problems and continues on through the healing process. Girl, Interrupted does a great job of depicting what went on in a lot of teens minds in the 60s and 70s and even in this day and age. The trials and tribulations that occur throughout this movie explain the terms of friendships and relationships that people are faced with every day. Definately a movie that i would recommend to someone who has any interest in psychology and sociology. Another movie that i would recommend that goes along with Girl, Interrupted, is One Flew over the Co-Co's Nest.
Rating: 
Summary: Been there, done that
Review: I rated "Girl Interrupted" a 4 star not because it was so outstanding, with the exception of Jolie's performance, but because it was made at all.
In the late 60's and early 70's in a time of political and social ambivalence, it was very popular and yes, fashionable to hospitalize teenagers and young adults. The movie, for me, was an incredibly disturbing flashback of a time I had pushed in the farthest reaches of my mind.
"Girl" was true to the daily life, give or take the hospital, but became muttled. I plan to read the book for more clarity but wish more people would see this movie. They need to see "the other side" and remember that unfortunately some of these hospitals created adults, from children, whose NORMALITY IS INSTITUTIONS. They live, they work, they raise families but are not quite "in the swing" of society.
Rating:
Summary: Speechles
Review: Personally when i heard the tittle to this movie i figured it was another one of those sexy chick flicks. To my suprise it was almost the opposite. It's about an 18 yr old girl Susanna Kaysen (Wynonna Ryder) who is sent to a mental institution becouse she apperntly tried to kill herself. While she is in the institution she not only finds herself as a person but she also finds that the people who seem to be the craziest people you'll ever meet are more sane than the people who are ou living normal lives. I'm only 15 and i haven't seen to many movies but this is by far the best movie (i think) that has ever and will ever be made. Angelina Jolie blows up the role of Lisa the 18 yr old sociapath who in her own little way helps susanna relize the she doesn't belong in this hospital. I recommend thid movie to anyone that ever said that Angelina Jolie is just a cute pair of lips and butt, and to anyone who thinks all women are over dramatic. Before i saw this movie i thought with a very self endulged attitude but now i think a little but clearer All in All i think this is a great movie and at the end of it i was truly "Speechles"
Rating:
Summary: Really insightful and inspiring!
Review: Susanna Kaysen's story of her two year stay at a mental hospital in the 1960's is a real eye-opener. It's almost uncanny of how much sense the people have - that they are more real than any of the people you know. There really is a fine line between genius and insanity, and this just reminds you of how close you can get. Just watching it seemed to take me on a backward step to examine myself from a whole new view and to open my mind to the depth of emotions and stability. The performances in this movie are just captivating and bring the story to an inspirational level. I've always admired Winona Ryder for her compassion in her acting. Her work on Susanna was just wonderful - doesn't she deserve an Academy Award as well? ...And Angelina Jolie, whom I usually avoid, was terrific. I can't imagine any other cast with half the success. I really enjoyed this film and the insight it both offers and provokes. It's going to be something I'm going to watch again and again ...especially when I'm depressed or confused. This is like a sweet, mysterious psychology lesson. (That sounded weird, but really, don't pass this up!)
Rating:
Summary: Girl Intrrupted by Susanna Kaysen
Review: This interesting book is a real story of a girl that suffers living in a memory life. Susanna Kaysen an 18-year-old girl with a Borderline Personality Disorder and a depressive reaction. After she tries to commit suicide by drinking a bottle of pills with vodka, she is sent to the McLean Hospital, a mental recovery hospital for women, in Massachusetts.
There she mets other girls that beamed her confidants . During the time she was there (1967-1969) she saw life with other face , now she wants to recover and start a new life. Susanna Kaysen, the author and main character of this book. The other main characters are Lisa the girl that influenced the most , then Georgina (Susanna's roommate) , Daisy and Valerie ( the main nurse) . The way that Lisa was living her life, maked her (Susanna) want to recuperate.
This book gave many details that attach you to the reading. The author tells you what happened in a really interesting way that it is easy to believe. I liked this book because it is real, and you can actually tell you are in it, you feel so . The way the author writes makes you keep reading. It is really easy to imagine everything because she gives many details. There is many things in life we wouldn't believe, but the way she talks about it and explains it , you can believe it .
This book is mainly to persons that actually want to be better persons in life. I would recommend to girls mainly, although boys can read it too. This book my encourage you to change. After reading it, your life may change, and you get new experiences. You may see life with other eyes.
Rating:
Summary: Good, but stops short of great
Review: I have lived through an experience similar to that which Susanna Kaysen did, only 35 years later. I have also read the book which the movie was based on. There's a lot that's done right in this movie. It (finally) takes an honest look at the experience of mental illness and the mental health system. The "ambiguity", the unanswered questions, the self-doubt, the isolation. In particular, Winona Ryder portrayed this in a way that struck a deep resonance with me. It went beyond anything I have seen onscreen before. And I could not stop laughing after that scene in the restaurant where they try to scare the bitchy ladies by acting like "crazy people." It is so true that people have this totally wacked-out idea of what mental illness is about, including a totally irrational fear of anyone "with mental problems" (shiver... "mufasa"...) :) lol... Always with Hollywood there is this drive to make a dramatic climax and package up a "moral" so we don't all have to feel like we're left with any questions when we turn off the TV and go back to our lives. And with no other film have I been less impressed with this practise than in this one. The reality is that questions are at the *heart* of our understanding of mental illness at this point in history. There is just *so* much we do not know. The human mind is "the last frontier" of all our scientific efforts to understand our world. We don't have all the answers yet, we don't even have all the questions. Okay, end of sermon. Back to the film... (by the way, I am still giving 4 stars here because there were so many *wonderful*, compassionate performances here. It really disturbed me to see the cliched portrayal of the therapists as (respectively) inept & inappropriate, and downright scary, and later turn them into the means by which Susanna exorcizes her demons. No, no, no people that is not how it works (thank god). Garbage in, garbage out applies to therapists as well. And if that woman that Susanna saw was my therapist, I would be in deep trouble! Psychiatrists and psychologists are, by and large, highly *ethical,* compassionate, empathetic people. They are definately not people to be afraid of or intimidated by. Personally, my psychiatrist is one of the kindest, most caring people I know. And I have never slept with him. :) Could I also point out that Susanna's diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder after one appointment with a psychiatrist was a COMPLETE farce? That is an extremely involved diagnosis which is made only with the greatest of care, and I believe currently requires more than one professional opinion. It was also a very newly-classified disorder at that time, which may explain why the doctor used it - it was obscure enough noone was going to call him on the fact that he wasn't really doing his job. I won't even start on how he put her in the hospital after such an evaluation. So anyway, a good film with some fundamental flaws. Hope I have left you *with* lingering questions and a desire to better understand a very misunderstood subject. I hope you will want to get a clearer picture of this issue as it is a very important one that touches so many lives. Let's learn the truth and make the world a better place! :D
Rating: 
Summary: Ryder & Jolie - At home at last
Review: Oh dear, oh dear... The young-woman-full-of-angst-thing had already gotten pretty tired by the time that this movie hit the screens. I'm afraid that I have little to nothing godd to say about this film. It's greatest shortcoming is it's failure to generate any sympathy for these young women struggling to overcome whatever it is they feel they must overcome... in my opinion they need to overcome overwhelming self-involvement. Drab, dull, tiresome, annoying - all words that come to mind remembering sitting in the multiple watching and hoping it would get better. It didn't.Appropraite casting - Ryder and Jolie seem right at home in a mental institution. Whoopi Goldberg bounces around the periphery of this film killing every moment of fun. Like any review this is my take... plenty of people enjoyed it and clearly found some redeeming qualities, but they were lost on me.This was one girl that deserved to be interrupted.
Rating:
Summary: A Compelling Insight into the mind
Review: Girl, Interrupted brought me into its world of mental illness and female relationships very firmly. Whoopi Goldberg never seems to do a bad job in a film. This is not a "thrill-a-minute" film, and it's not supposed to be. It's a probing story of Susanna (Wynona Ryder) trying to wake from the haze of 'Borderline Personality Disorder', where you feel no sense of personal identity. As she tries to find a self in the dingy Claymore Hospital (filmed in a real mental hospital), the compellingly dark but powerful Lisa (Angelina Jolie, and she did deserve that Oscar) is strangely compelling to Susanna. The other characters in the ward are right on the money, too. If there were a better understanding of mental illness among the general public, this film would have won more than just Jolie's Oscar!
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