Girl, Interrupted stars Winona Ryder as Susanna Kaysen, a 17-year-old who checks herself into a mental hospital after she notices that she has no real direction in her life. While in the hospital, she meets up with various other afflicted girls and forms friendships with many of them which will end up being fortuitous when she breaks out.

One such friendship is with Lisa (Angelina Jolie) who has what seems to be too many mental illnesses to count. Lisa definitely has an evil side, and also a caring side, which are both sufficiently demonstrated in this film. The problem is, Lisa steals the show. From her outrageous antics to her temper tantrums, Angelina Jolie does a superb job and consequently overpowers Winona's subdued performance.

While Girl, Interrupted has it's moments of brilliance, overall, the movie drags on too long as Susanna tries to cope with her illness after she goes through all of the stages: denial, realization, etc. Girl, Interrupted has fun parts, depressing parts, and interesting characters, but unfortunately, the movie is unable to deliver that extra punch in the feelings department as I left the theater completely uninterested in the final outcome of Susanna's illness and more intrigued by Lisa's multiple illnesses. Winona Ryder does a good job of playing the subdued, restrained teenager searching for her true self. I was pleasantly surprised by Whoopi's performance as the amiable, but stern nurse/warden of the mental hospital. In conclusion, when looking back, maybe it was my lack of sleep of the total ineptitude of the script which failed to present a clear vision of the main character Susanna and an overpowering characterization of the supporting Lisa, which failed to make Girl, Interrupted everything that it could have been. It wasn't a complete waste of time, but at a pricey $8.00, it wasn't worth the money.

Genres: Drama, True Story
Rated: R
Runtime: 127 minutes
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