This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

Simply A Masterpiece

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Most of us heard of the movie "A Beautiful Mind". In my opinion, Girl, Interrupted is almost as good as that movie in terms of the performances and the story. Both movies are biographies of people who suffer from psychological diseases. The characters in the movie were pretty realistic, giving us the chance to observe the lives and behaviors of that kind of people and understand them. I found the movie pretty underrated.

Based on a true story, Girl, Interrupted gives an account of Susanna Kaysen's 18 month stay at a mental hospital during the 1960's.I'll kick off with a disclaimer that I have not read Susanna Kaysen's book, but I can only presume, and hope, that the book doesn't have nearly as many shortcomings as the film.One major thing I did take exception to with this film is its lack of depth and development in terms of its characters. Angelina Jolie's character Lisa is a sociopath who is little more than a playground bully which truth be told is it a little one-note and becomes a bit tiresome after the novelty wears off. Jolie is quite good here and this film helped to showcase that she had some range, but I just wish that her character had been given more dimension and depth. In fairness, we do gain more of an understanding of her character at the end of the film, but this doesn't make up for the fact that Jolie had nothing to work with in the early stages of the film. The only other supporting character to get any sort of focus was Daisy (Brittany Murphy), but again her character isn't that well-written and her character, like Lisa, didn't really have enough depth to make me care.Even when looking at the main character Susanna the writers probably don't develop her as well as they should have done; it seemed with Susanna, like Lisa, that all of the interesting things about her character are lazily thrown in at the end and prior to this we witness numerous therapy sessions, flashbacks, and Susanna ingratiating herself with the sisterhood at Claymoore and sadly I didn't find any of these things particularly insightful.Angelina Jolie and Winona Ryder put in good performances and some of the insights given at the end do give the film some weight, but I couldn't help but feel that the director's own indulgences got in the way far too often. Girl, Interrupted provides us with a lot of potentially interesting characters that sadly are never allowed to become interesting and a potentially interesting story that doesn't always focus its attention in the right areas. Inevitably, this film will probably be compared to One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, but by comparison, Girl, Interrupted falls short.

James Mangold is a director who takes nothing but top shelf scripts and spins them into gold, and Girl Interrupted is a shining example of this. It's based on a book by Susannah Kayson in which she outlines an 18 month stay at a mental ward sometime during the 60's. Mangold adapts her book for the screen, gathers an excellent cast of talented gals and a couple guys, and makes a film that holds up today like it was still it's release week in 1999. Winona Ryder plays Susanna, a reckless girl who is labelled wayward and unstable by her parents, committed to a facility by her stern psychiatrist (Red Forman himself, Kurtwood Smith). She's a little rough around the edges, but one senses the innate sensibility to her that perhaps has been buried under turbulent behaviour not by anything within her, but by the constricting nature of the time period she has been born into. In any case, she finds herself thrown into an environment she didn't expect, with many other girls, some of which she clashes with, some of which she ends up befriending, and one that.. well, defies classification, really. The girl in question is Lisa, played by a fantastically fired up Angelina Jolie who nearly combusts upon herself in her furious performance. Lisa has been dubbed nearly unable to treat, yet simply has the kind of soul that doesn't fit into a box, let alone lend itself to scholarly dissection. Ice cool one moment, a raging typhoon the next, and holding a dense riot shield over any trace of her true emotions every second, she's an enigmatic, elemental wild card. It's the best work I've ever seen from Jolie, getting her a well earned Oscar nod. She teaches Susanna some lessons that only people on that side of the glass can comprehend, confounding the facility's head doctor (Vanessa Redgrave) and puzzling a kind orderly (Whoopi Goldberg), two rational people who simply can't understand the kind resolution and companionship that often comes out of irrational, unconventional interaction that almost always is seen as 'unstable'. Ryder is pitch perfect and carries her share of the load, but despite being the protagonist, it's Jolie's show all the way. She's unbelievably good and will break the heart of both first time viewers and veterans who put the DVD in every so often for a tearful revisit. The late Brittany Murphy is great as Daisy, another complicated girl, and Clea Duvall scores points as Georgina, the shy and reserved one. There's also work from Jared Leto Elizabeth Moss, Angela Bettis, Bruce Altman, Mary Kay Place, Kadee Strickland, Misha Collins and Jeffrey Tambor. Tender, patient and non judgmental are qualities which are essential in films of this subject matter, as well as empathy from both viewer and filmmaker, to take a look at these girls and even though we may not understand what is going on with them or their beaviour, to simply bear witness, and be there for them. Mangold knows this and acts accordingly, leading to a beautiful film of the highest order. Viewers are sure to do the same, completing the artistic ring full circle.

In the movie that is suppose to take place in 1961 a song is being placed as her memory goes back to before 1961. A song is being played at a party called "time has come today". That recording was released in 1967 so the people that made this movie were clueless about the music of the time. I suspect there were other recordings that were in error such as Downtown "1964" by Petula Clark, and others. Why did these idiots use songs released after 1961 for a move about 1961. Did juveniles make this film? Was there no one over 60 involved in the production? The recordings before 1966 or 1967 was very different than after 1967. Groups like Paul Revere and the raiders,the Monkeys, and Motown ruled the airwaves. The Beatles,the Stones. the British invasion and the hippy era did become mainstream until after 1961. Get off my cloud came out about 1963, Bob Dylan was after 1963. 1961 was very much like the 1950s.Dion and the Belmounts, Phil Spector's wall of sound, the Supremes,Marvin Gay,Motown.