Amazon.com video review:
Based on Susanna Kaysen's acclaimed journal-memoir, Girl,
Interrupted bears inevitable resemblance to One Flew Over the
Cuckoo's Nest, and pale comparison to that earlier classic is
impossible to avoid. The mental institution settings of both films
guarantee a certain degree of déjà vu and at least one Oscar
winner
(in this case, Angelina Jolie), since playing a loony is any actor's dream
gig. Unfortunately, director James Mangold seems to have misplaced the
depth and delicacy of his underrated debut, Heavy, despite a great
deal of earnest effort by everyone involved. It's easy to see why Winona
Ryder chose to star in (and executive-produce) this nearly worthy
adaptation of Kaysen's book, since it's a strong vehicle for female casting
and potent drama. Mangold certainly got the former; whether he succeeded
with the latter is not so clear.
To be sure, Ryder conveys the confusion and chaos that signified Kaysen's
life during nearly 18 months of voluntary institutionalization beginning in
1967. But the film seems too eager to embrace the cliché that the
"crazies"
of the Claymoore women's ward are saner than the war-torn world outside,
and lack of narrative focus gives way to semipredictable character study.
Susanna (Ryder) is labeled with "borderline personality disorder," a diagnosis
as
ambiguous as her own emotions, and while Jolie chews the scenery as the
resident bad-girl sociopath, Ryder effectively conveys an odyssey from
vulnerable fear to self-awareness and, finally, to healing. The ensemble
cast is uniformly superb, making this drama well worthwhile, even as it
treads familiar territory. If it ultimately lacks dramatic impact, Girl,
Interrupted makes it painfully clear that the boundaries of dysfunction
are hazy in a world where everyone's crazy once in a while. --Jeff
Shannon
