Interesting time capsule...

Rating: 8/10 (28 August 2003)

From the years 1800 to 1960, very little progress was made in the understanding or treatment of mental illness. Part of this stagnation had to do with the fact that religious repression of medical science was still being shaken off at the time, but the biggest culprit was the inability of society to wake up and realise that just because a fat suit behind a desk said all was well didn't necessarily make it so. Given that Australia calls itself the "lucky country" in spite of having the highest youth suicide rate in the entire world, it doesn't appear that we'll be getting over that hurdle any time soon.
But the treatment of the mentally ill in the 1960s is a radically different beast to what it has been since the patenting of Prozac and Zoloft in the mid 1990s. In the 1960s, it was belived by medical staff of all walks that patients of any description had no real rights, and that they had better do what was ordered or look out. Nowadays, hospitals and doctors can be taken to court for trying to make a patient take pills without informing them of what the pills are meant to do. That's one area where progress has been made, and films like this are useful in this way as they provide a bit of information about how things used to be. Maybe in another thirty years, they will make a film about the treatment of mental patients in the 1990s. I'll probably get around to writing my own memoirs by then, so Hollywood can give me a call if they are interested. I have some stories that will make their ears bleed.
That's the one flaw with this film. The results of the primitive and often excessive treatments given in this film are very much prettied-up for the Hollywood audience. The 1960s is a time when such things as Deep Sleep Therapy, a treatment where patients were put into drug-induced comas and given ECT, were thought of as a good idea. Many a patient was killed by this treatment, and to not have such barbarisms mentioned at all in a film that is almost entirely set in a mental hospital is a mistake.
Winona Ryder in the lead role is a bit of a non-event. While it is true that she resembles a lot of archival photos of the real Susanna Kaysen, her flat-as-a-plank delivery makes her patently unconvincing. In a real mental hospital where patients are often climbing the walls, it is truly difficult to believe that this woman would be kept there for the entirety of a day. If anyone needs to know why Angelina Jolie is one of the most well-regarded actors of her generation despite some shocking script choices, this is the film to look at. She truly steals the show here, and absorbs every last bit of audience sympathy. She acts rings around the entire cast, including Whoopi Goldberg.
All in all, I gave this film a seven out of ten. It is just too prettied-up to have any impact, but it does provide an interesting look at how far things have come (as well as remained the same) in around thirty or forty years.