Been There, Seen That, Done It "Girl" Has Its Moments

Rating: Null/10 (17 January 2000)

Sitting through the new film, "Girl, Interrupted" one feels like you have been down this road before and mostly likely you have. Hollywood has given the screen treatment to mental illness and the institutions that house those afflicted before, from 1948's harrowing, superb "The Snake Pit" to everyone's favorite 1975's "One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest". In fact "Girl, Interrupted" seems somewhat like a female version of that 1975 film. That said, "Girl" is not a bad film, it has some very good moments, it's just not that fresh and is filled with the typical stock characters that populate this genre, though it does boast a couple of good performances, especially Winona Ryder as the lead character.
"Girl, Interrupted" is adapted from the1993 memoir of writer Susanna Kaysen's emotional breakdown as a teenager in the late 60's. The film follows Susanna (the wonderful Winona Ryder) right after her suicide attempt, which lands her into a mental institution for women. There she comes into contact with the regulars on the floor and ends up forming a bond with the seriously unstable and controlling Lisa (Angelina Jolie), who has already been a resident for eight years. What happens throughout the film is the basic standard fare for this film genre. Getting to know the patients and their eccentricities, patients versus staff, nightly escapades, breakouts, it has all been down before. The film rises above itself when it focuses outside of the institution and the group residents; that is when the film becomes compelling. Such scenes as Susanna slipping in and out of different parts of her life or her one on one sessions with various doctors lift the film from it's retread material and attempts to go beyond the typical fare.
The saving grace of "Girl, Interrupted" which makes it worth seeing is the superb performance by Winona Ryder, giving one of her best performances in years. Her subtle, focused and moving performance helps to ground the film into reality. This is a young girl caught between the two worlds of normalcy and off-kilter and Ryder conveys this perfectly without going over the top. Such though cannot be said about Angelina Jolie's performance of Lisa, the charismatic sociopath. It can be seen why Jolie would be attracted to such a flashy, explosive character, but unfortunately she goes too far over the top and her theatrics drive the character completely off the map of believability, which ends up hurting the picture to a degree. It is only towards the end when her performance is somewhat toned down, but by that time it is too late. The other actresses do okay in their standard stock roles, although Brittany Murphy is excellent as Daisy, a young emotionally disturbed girl with major problems. Whoopie Goldberg does her best work in years as an intelligent and caring nurse and Vanessa Regrave is fine as the doctor of the institution. In fact Goldberg and Regrave's scenes with Winona Ryder are some of the highlights of this film.
"Girl, Interrupted" starts off on a great note, but then becomes standard and somewhat predictable, with a few shining moments throughout. Some reworking of this film could have made it much more than above average. Regardless, Winona Ryder's performance makes this film worth seeing, just as Jude Law did with the over rated "The Talented Mr. Ripley". A Marginal Recommendation. × × × out of 5