Quite a disappointment

Rating: Null/10 (16 July 2000)

Girl, Interrupted is a movie which attempts to relate the rocky, trauma-fraught teenage years of Susanna Kaysen. While I have not read the book, I was interested in the presentation of the subject matter, which has been covered successfully and not-so-successfully in a number of films, such as "I Never Promised You a Rose Garden" and "Lisa, Bright and Dark".
I was quite disappointed. The movie proved to be more of a caricature of the subject matter than any sort of revelation. Having studied the institutionalization period of mental illness treatment history (from the 40's to the 70's), I found the depiction of the psychiatric hospital and its staff to be shallow, one-dimensional, and just plain stupid. A justification could be made that the movie presented this depiction from Kaysen's perspective, but if I were Kaysen, I would be disappointed in the film.
Cinematographer Jack Green, who was greatly responsible for the success of "The Bridges of Madison County", helps to provide the atmosphere necessary for the tension-based story, but James Mangold, who did a good job with "Copland", strikes out as writer/director in this film. The subject matter provides a lot of freedom to improvise, but Mangold gives us predictability to the point of being hackneyed. The focus is more on the "hey, man, look at me being crazy" set of experiences than the true depths of dispair of the characters. Mangold simply doesn't fill out the characters well, missing out on the integrity and depth required from them to connect on an emotional level. He seems to use a story structural mechanism similar to "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", where one prominent character (here named Lisa) helps to involve the other characters in the story as associates. However, Mangold misses the key connection in "One", that the other characters and their plight provide the motivation for McMurphy's acting-out. That sense of life-and-death for Lisa is not explored in this movie.
Jack Green, who was greatly responsible for the success of "The Bridges of Madison County", helps to provide the atmosphere necessary for the tension-based story, but focuses too much on Rather, we have to get sensationalized from the Lisa character
Despite the lack of integrity The acting is good despite the weak script. Wynona Ryder turns a believable, steady performance despite a sense that the script doesn't really explore the intricacies of the character. Angelina Jolie is certainly a fine actress who excels at over-the-top roles, but I didn't find this to be one of her more memorable efforts. I much prefer her in "Gia" and "Foxfire" than what seems to be a somewhat shrill effort here. I was a bit amazed that she won an Oscar for her work here when there were so many good supporting performances from which to choose. Whoopie Goldberg and Vanessa Redgrave provide familiar, reliable faces for supporting roles.
One reviewer described the movie as " The teen-bopper's One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest". I agree somewhat with that description, though "One" was far superior in almost every area, starting with the storyline. The film probably does succeed best as a vehicle to which troubled teenagers can relate. In a day and age where things move so fast and where so much is expected of children by their peer groups and parents, it's good to have something to which to relate.