Girl, Interrupted [DVD]

The psychiatrist said, "It's not uncommon...it happens to a lot of young women." And then diagnosed the young (female) patient with a "borderline" personality disorder. What that means is "she doesn't seem right"; "she's not getting it"--and that means the young woman was brought up among people with 'resources' and she is not doing everything according to their cultural ethos so her parents will have "bragging rights" about what university she will attend, which would mean they were great parents (which, in essence they were) but they, as parents would worry about that--all parents did during this period: with 'means' or not), because there is this factor that her failure to adhere to the cultural'tracts' and expectations means that a reflection falls upon the parents and affects their status in their local community and society. Such was the culture during this period. Parents were totally concerned about their reputations in the community--It means and meant an awful lot. And still today, but then, during this period, it was an obsession with parents. People killed to save their reputation and status: checkout "Perry Mason". Parents were very serious about "loosing face." And often their children would embarass them in a timeless teen rebellion. As a last-ditched effort the parents who could afford it sent their children to a sanotorium, other parents set them out into their own independent lives.It is obvioius by the characters that some of these young women wanted to step out of the proverbial box and go it on their own and that caused them problems inside. They felt 'wrong' and their parents and community supported that sense of wrong, but at the same time they felt 'right' for themselves; they found they could not comply with the collective sense that was in place for proper development: "Just do as you're told and you'll be fine," but it caused problems inside. It caused confusion, agitation, resistance and depression and it is very hard to get through this in your young life and make it to the other side where light and life is for you.For a young woman to say she wanted to 'write' without getting a college degree or without getting married first was defined as being 'unfavorable' and more like a 'bum' but today we invite writing careers because sometimes they take off into lucrative careers. Today, women pick and choose when to get married, when to have children and how many, all such as that, but still: SOME young women will have a really hard time, a really serious "mind jam" and can't get on with their life. (Well, young men too...everybody gets jammed at middleaged; so we all go through brain jams that are difficult to get by and live through but they are more natural than crazy: some of us experienced people say.) Afterall, 'crazy' means you're not mentally compatible with everyone else.In the meantime, life is going on and more events happen that sometimes does something like "shock therapy" and "we wake up to smell the coffee" eventually; by then we may be fifty or sixty. We awaken to the fact that life is not something we can really change or design to our liking directly; this is other life going on that we cannot controll. It is something that we may be able to 'structure','order' and 'manage' to a certain extent but we still have to live through it to the other side.Then, there were young women in the sanotorium in this movie who were basically 'kids' and would remain basically kids for all their lives; they trade their parents for caretakers in a luxury sanotorium. Independence and 'be strong and face the world' is a bunch of crap, their minds might say. I prefer to just sit here and be here and not have to deal with people and their criticisms. I'll be a criticism. But some parents can't afford a luxury sanotorium, Whoopi's character tells one of the patients.I liked that line a lot: "It happens to a lot of young women"....it may just happen to all young people. Growing up is hard to do: getting reality straight and feeling our drives pushing us and desiring what we shouldn't have (all of that) and having dreams and wishes in the mind and not realizing what to do with them...all of that is very difficult to get through and learn but most of us eventually do it.It takes quite a bit of adjusting (in stages) to live adult life in a 'real sense' and by the time a young woman does get her bearings she may have had some traumatic events early on that she can't take back, she can't erase, that has ruined her 'perfect' life...and so on, but then, for her to get well she has to keep going and learn hardcore that there is no such thing as a perfect life where people don't die from just about anything, and there is no such thing as perfect people that will not break rules,and, lie and cheat, and that their own life and living is not so broken, not as broken...as it seems to be because 'normal' is a wide field of gray; it is the formulaic structure, plan and goal for the IDEAL life that gets in the way.Real life is very hard to take if you're a stark idealist. And an ideal life is hard to take if you prone to more realism.I think this movie is an American classic in many ways. It is right on. The characters are so believable. (And no, Angelina Jolie does not over-act. She places the role. Without her performance we would not have felt we were in a mental ward in an upper income sanotorium. Like Whoopi Goldberg's character said, "I've worked at the public institutions..." Bravo for the performances!!!Suggestion: Give this to a troubled young girl before she goes off the edge. Show her what the edge really looks like. And don't think the real-life nurses do not know when you're not taking the pills, they do. They may just feel that their job requirement is to give you the pill and not too much else. But, the young people in the sanotorium do feel that when they hurt themselves deliberately they are hurting someone else.--MO

Very good movie!!!!!!!

Excellent movie and a classic!

Love her or her Angelina always delivers her role. Great cast! I purchased this one.

Good condition. Good movie.

Directed by James Mangold (COPLAND, THE WOLVERINE) and starring Winona Ryder and Angelina Jolie, GIRL INTERRUPTED is the adaptation of Susanna Kaysen's memoir about her time spent in Claymoore for attempted suicide. While I do feel like it is a good film, if a little unspectacular or by-the-numbers, I've never liked Winona Ryder that much. She acquits herself nicely here, but her character is rather vanilla and bland, especially compared to the colorful cast of characters she meets while institutionalized. The most interesting (and most developed) of these is Lisa, played by Angelina Jolie. While she might be better known as a movie star than as a serious actress these days, this performance came before all of that and, in my opinion, is one of her best. In fact, she gives the best performance in the entire film. In terms of thematic content, there are a lot of things said about insanity and mental health. Also, given the time period of 1967-1968, one could infer commentary on the state of America's mental institutions, especially as they applied to women. There's also some subtle commentary on the Vietnam War, although not to a great extent since that wasn't the main focus of the story. Whatever thematic goals the film may have had, however, pale in comparison to the character work and ensemble cast. As a portrait of life in a mental institution during the late 60's, I thought it was very effective, humorous and occasionally poignant. Brittany Murphy also had a small role as a character who is involved with one of the film's more serious moments. There are a couple more things that I thought about while watching this, one of them amusing and the other quite tragic. The first is a part of the film when Lisa and Susanna escape with the intention of going to Florida and getting jobs at the newly established Disney World. Lisa wants to be Cinderella, which is kind of funny considering that just last year Angelina Jolie played Maleficent for Disney. Not quite the same, but still interesting. The other, and which is a bit of a spoiler, is that Brittany Murphy would eventually meet a tragic end like her character in this film. Anyway, this wasn't some brilliant expose of mental institutions but it did function especially well as a character study. Winona Ryder's character was a bit bland, but only because she was completely upstaged by everyone around her. Recommended, but mostly for Angelina Jolie's performance.