Movie Review Girl Interrupted

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1999 spoiler alerts Based on the autobiography of Susanna Kaysen, who was tricked into signing herself into a long stay in a US mental institution after a a potential suicide attempt (which could actually have been an accidental drugs and alcohol overdose to clear a migraine). Kaysen, played to perfection by Winona Ryder, begins to empathise with the other inmates including the coldly sociopathic rebel, Lisa, presented in an unforgettable Oscar winning role by Angelina Jolie. Gradually, Kaysen realizes that much of her treatment is so experimental that the psychiatrists are well meaning but delusional, while her affinity to the other patients is in danger of tying her to the institution forever. There are fictionalized elements such as Kaysen & Lisa’ escape and the witnessing of one liberated patient’s horrific suicide, but the movie is powerful and moving throughout, drawing inevitable comparisons to One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest. The film captures well how madness is often simply not being understood and not fitting in to social expectations. The soundtrack of 60’s music is fabulous. The title comes from a Vermeer painting, Girl Interrupted At Her Music, which is referenced and seen in a sequence cut from the main movie but included in its DVD extras. The painting is seen here in this Wikipedia link Arthur Chappell