THE definitive nuthouse film

Rating: Null/10 (28 April 2003)

This film is very similar to One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, inevitably, as it's almost entirely set in a mental hospital, at roughly the same time, in this case the late '60s. Cuckoo's Nest was a great film, but, though flawed, this all-female version based on a true story is better. This review contains spoilers, but only of a general nature.
The plot, concerning a young woman who commits herself following a failed suicide attempt, and is 'cured' more through contact with the other inmates than the rather hapless attempts of staff to help her, is more connected and purposeful than that of Cuckoo's Nest. The supporting cast of inmates here are real people with real backstories, rather than twitching Christopher Lloyds, leering weirdos and silent Indian giants.
The acting is what sets this film apart though. Winona Rider's low-key Susanna is easily a match for Nicholson's McMurphy and Fletcher's Big Nurse, and she's ably supported by a super-straight Whoopi Goldberg (as a nurse) and an interestingly odd Vanessa Redgrave (as the head doctor). But this film is all about the stunning performance by Angelina Jolie, proving that truly great acting sometimes does win Oscars (she got Best Supporting Actress). As the ward's sociopathic 'top dog', Lisa, Jolie flits from the vulnerable and charming to the terrifyingly pitiless, conveying more with half a glance than others can through whole speeches. This is one of the great acting performances of cinema history, all the more astounding as this actor, though always competent, has never produced anything near this level elsewhere. Not to be missed.
There wasn't much about the film I didn't like, but the ending left me feeling dissatisfied. The message almost seems to be that Lisa is the problem and the hospital, however ineffectual, is a kind of solution. In fact Lisa is just as much a victim of the barbaric practices (electric shock therapy, lobotomy, etc) used in psychiatry in those days as McMurphy, but, while we can hate the system that destroys McMurphy - a powerful element of the final payoff in Cuckoo's Nest - it's not so easy here. All the hospital staff, despite varying degrees of competence, are uniformly pleasant and well-meaning, and it's harder to hate a system that contains no hint of any villain. This is a true story of course. I'm not sure how closely the film follows the book, but the truth was that many psychiatric staff in those days were honestly applying damaging treatments which they believed were helping their patients. With the human mind still largely unknown territory, this still happens today.
Though this lack of a villain to hate detracts from the power of the film's conclusion, the brilliantly acted cast of real people with real problems ensures that this is in fact the definitive nuthouse film.