Good Movie--But NOT the TRUE STORY. . .

Rating: 9/10 (25 February 2007)

***SPOILER ALERT****
"Girl, Interrupted" is about a young woman who was hospitalized in the 1960's after a suicide attempt. The main character is well-played by Winona Ryder and features an excellent cast, including Angelina Jolie, Whoopi Goldburg and Brittany Murphy. They give some powerful performances.I found the movie to be funny, charming and entertaining in depicting the relationships of these women in a psychiatric ward. Basically, the story revolves around the young woman's journey back to "sanity" after her initial diagnosis of BPD--Borderline Personality Disorder. The best part about this movie is the emphasis on love and friendship that develop between the patients and staff.
That being said, the movie should come with a warning that much of the story is a gross deviation from the true story, the book by the same name "Girl, Interrupted", written by the subject of it, Susanna Kaysen which is an account of her hospitalization experience. I've seen many user comments from people who haven't read the book referring to it as the "true story" not knowing that many scenes and events never occurred. There are various changes made in certain characters, some big, some small but the most major change is the character, Lisa Rowe, a sociopath (played by Anjelina Jolie). In the movie, she is enigmatic, somewhat cruel, sinister at times and indirectly causes the death of another patient through her cruelty. Eventually, she becomes homicidal and stalks Susanna through the tunnels underneath the hospital with a hypodermic needle loaded with who-knows-what. The thing is, the real-life Lisa never did any of those things which are significant alterations of a character and subsequently the storyline (not to mention slanderous). It bothers me because it reinforces Hollywood stereotypes of mental illness--some things being distorted in order to sensationalize--the butcher-knife wielding mental patient is always more interesting than the real thing to movie-makers. Actually, some of the things that the real Lisa did were more interesting to me, like toilet-papering the TV room and stealing all the light bulbs from the ward (when asked how, she said "I have a long skinny arm.")
Ultimately, it doesn't reflect the true story by Ms. Kaysen whose book is an endearing, honest, meaningful and insightful look at the real experience of mental illness. I would say that as a **fictional** story for entertainment value, it's a good movie and worth watching but if you want the **truth**, I highly recommend you check out the book from your local library.