Girl, Interrupted (1999)

Review by Bret Walker

Based on the true story of Susanna Kaysen's stay in a mental institution during the late 1960's, Girl Interrupted is both dark and light hearted at the same time, achieving balance between the good friends Susanna found in her search for herself and the nightmare of life in a mental institution.

This film reminds me very much of One Flew Over the Cukoo's Nest in its tone and timbre. The audience is shown the stark cuts of light in the bleak existence in the walls of the institution; a holding cell for some, for others a final destination.

Susanna is a girl who finds herself committed by her family because she is leading a self-destructive life of random sex, drugs, and a general malaise that has seemingly beset her. Susanna is rebelious at having been tricked by her psychologist to go to the institute. At first she resists attempts by the staff to get through to her, claiming she was set up and that she had no business being there.

She meets Lisa, a very wild girl with violent tendencies who resents Susanna at first because she has taken the place of Lisa's friend who killed herself a week before. As time goes on the two become very close, almost sisterly. Little by little Susanna becomes drawn into Lisa's dark nightmarish world, and they begin to openly defy the powers that be. This is not met well, and Susanna and Lisa run away together.

They meet up with one of the girls who had been committed with them, whose father had her released and put up in an apartment in town. Lisa's antagonism is more than the girl can stand and she kills herself. Lisa bolts and Susanna waits for the ambulance to come to take the girl away, and the doctors to take her back to the institution.

Without Lisa's influence, Susanna begins to make real progress, and realizes that she did indeed belong there, and that Lisa had represented her darker side, the side of her that she wished that she could let out. But when Lisa is caught and brought back to the institution, Susanna is torn between her friendship with Lisa and her own desire to face her own fears and get on with her life.

The presentation of this story is fantastic. The imagery and cinematography draws the audience in with a warm embrace. The identification with the angst experienced by Susanna, as well as the other patients, brings the audience full circle through a wide range of emotions. The direction and the acting is brilliant throughout. At the start of this review I identified this film with One Flew Over the Cukoo's Nest, but this film is a very modern and very real adaptation that takes a first-person look at life inside a mental institution. It's also a first-hand look at the angst of youth during the Viet-Nam war, and a country divided.

In the end, this film persuades a feeling of elation at Susanna's release, and the promise of tomorrow brought on by a peaceful today. It's definitely a film worth remembering for many years to come, one which gives us a glimpse, not into the heart of Susanna Kaysen, but into the hearts of ourselves.

Rating:

Trivia:

This film being released late in 1999, it's not surprising that this is the last film that Whoopie Goldberg appeared in in the '90s. It's also the fifty-sixth movie she appeared in in the '90s.

Links:

The Official Girl, Interrupted Website

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