Customer Reviews:
Fantastic .......2008-02-09
having rented this film once and not being able to watch due to poor dvd quality i felt the nedd to watch properly in its entirity.
This film is fantastic both Winona Ryder and Angelina Jolie play their roles fantastically. Although the film was supposed to be a comeback for Ryder you can definately see how Jolie stole the limelight. Her acting in this film is brilliant in showing the true ways of a sociopath and her character is depicted perfectly.
This film is a definate must see for both adults and those seeking an insight into the minds of others. !!
Incredible.......2008-01-25
This truely is one of the best movies ever made, I love it so much.
Based on the novel by Susanna Kaysen about the 18 months she spent in a mental institution for depression and Borderline Personality Disorder when she was 18 (which is a true story). Although I think that anybody would enjoy this movie, it's special to me because I also suffer from Borderline Personality Disorder myself and it's nice to see a movie which handles the subject sensitively.
Borderline Personality Disorder was a very controversial diagnosis in the 1960s (when this movie takes place), as even less was known about it than is now. Very little research was done into it back but the general diagnosis criteria and known sympoms were still the same:
1. Extreme black and white thinking (unable to see the grey area).
2. Unstable relationships characterised between feelings of idealation (love and adoration) and devaluation (anger and dislike).
3. Impulsivity, usually in self-destructive areas (e.g. binge eating, alcohol abuse, reckless driving, excessive spending and building up debt).
4. Mood swings between base (normal) mood, anxiety, irritability and depression.
5. Suicides threats or attempts or self mutilation (cutting, punching etc)
6. Irrational (to others) fear of abandonment and of being alone.
7. Outbursts of anger.
8. Shakey sence of self image - unsure about life goals, ambitions and belives such as what type of friends and lovers to have, carrer paths an sexual orientation.
9. Chronic and persistant feelings of emptyness (also described as boredom or loneliness).
The move is nicely paced and gets Susanna into the mental hospital within the first 10 or 15 minutes.
The characters include Polly (a schizophrenic who purposely set herself on fire as a child); Janet (an anorexic); Geogina, Susanna's room-mate (a pathological liar) and Lisa (a sociopath). The characters are all amazing well fleshed out and acted. They have very real and brilliantly acted emotions and personalities and are very beliveable as real people.
Susanna (Winona Ryder) and Lisa (Angelina Jolie) are particularly good in this movie.
A stunning and moving story of Susanna's illness and recovery and the nature of people and of mental ilness. It does a wonderfull job of removing some of the stigma that people associate with mental illness.
I would reccomend this movie in particular to people who are interested in mental illness or psychology or have such an ilness themselves (especially BPD) but also to anybody looking for a good movie. This is one of the best.
All time favourite film!!.......2007-07-20
This film has it all..
Great Cast
Brilliant Storyline
Fabulous Music
Humour, sad elements, touching elements, you name it it is in this film!!
From the perspective of someone who has Borderline Personality Disorder..........2007-01-05
After having read the book and being pleasantly suprised by this I was looking forward to watching the film.
Angelina Jolie did an OK job at playing a Sociopath, with enough coolness to be convincing.
Winona Ryder is more convincing as a Borderline, being highly functioning and having an inner struggle. I do think that this could have been portrayed more and was very disappointed with the final diagnosis of 'Recovered Borderline'. How she could have been 'Recovered in a year, is beyond me, very 'Hollywood'!
I enjoyed the film and did laugh at the black humour, and there were some real issues tackled.
Not bad at all and well worth watching!!
Girl, in need of some direction.......2006-10-24
I found this film compulsive viewing for two reasons (and perhaps don't read this if you don't want a hint at the ending) - the performance of Jolie as the sociopathic teenager who steals the show, and the darkly intriguing subject matter, which to put it bluntly is like car crash viewing. I would watch it again and not hesitate to recommend it as an entertaining way to while away an evening. However, if you think about the story, which you undoubtedly will, you start to wonder what its point was, and here is where the film disappoints. This film clearly ought to have a viewpoint or argument, as it's based on Keyson's autobiographical book, in which she was the main character. The book addressed the theme of how society portrays mental 'illness', suggesting that sanity is a social construction designed to help the 'healthy' feel 'normal'. After all, how do we define 'normal'? Without following this point through, the film entices the viewer into what becomes a bit of a ghoulish trip around a mental institution. What you are left with at the end of this film is a message about the distructiveness of radicalism and the benefits of cooperating with existing power structures. I think having come to realise that, I can see now why I was left feeling a bit blank yet saddened at the end of this film. As with so many stories about girls and their problems, the all-pervading message seems to be that girls need to come to the realisation they are rebelling against something that is good and there to help them. This is reflected in this film, where Susanna turns to the staff at the institution for help, learning to work within the system. You have to wonder, though, if the life she returns to at the end is better and good for her, or if she is just one more victim of society, conforming to its norms of behaviour and authority. The film could have been far more cohesive in this sense, but some magnificent acting will go a long way to rectify this with many viewers.
Amazon.co.uk Review
Based on Susanna Kaysen's acclaimed journal-memoir, Girl, Interrupted bears an 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 almost 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 institutionalisation 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 a semi-predictable 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, Amazon.com
Customer Reviews:
Incredible.......2008-02-03
This truely is one of the best movies ever made, I love it so much.
Based on the novel by Susanna Kaysen about the 18 months she spent in a mental institution for depression and Borderline Personality Disorder when she was 18 (which is a true story). Although I think that anybody would enjoy this movie, it's special to me because I also suffer from Borderline Personality Disorder myself and it's nice to see a movie which handles the subject sensitively.
Borderline Personality Disorder was a very controversial diagnosis in the 1960s (when this movie takes place), as even less was known about it than is now. Very little research was done into it back but the general diagnosis criteria and known sympoms were still the same:
1. Extreme black and white thinking (unable to see the grey area).
2. Unstable relationships characterised between feelings of idealation (love and adoration) and devaluation (anger and dislike).
3. Impulsivity, usually in self-destructive areas (e.g. binge eating, alcohol abuse, reckless driving, excessive spending and building up debt).
4. Mood swings between base (normal) mood, anxiety, irritability and depression.
5. Suicides threats or attempts or self mutilation (cutting, punching etc)
6. Irrational (to others) fear of abandonment and of being alone.
7. Outbursts of anger.
8. Shakey sence of self image - unsure about life goals, ambitions and belives such as what type of friends and lovers to have, carrer paths an sexual orientation.
9. Chronic and persistant feelings of emptyness (also described as boredom or loneliness).
The move is nicely paced and gets Susanna into the mental hospital within the first 10 or 15 minutes.
The characters include Polly (a schizophrenic who purposely set herself on fire as a child); Janet (an anorexic); Geogina, Susanna's room-mate (a pathological liar) and Lisa (a sociopath). The characters are all amazing well fleshed out and acted. They have very real and brilliantly acted emotions and personalities and are very beliveable as real people.
Susanna (Winona Ryder) and Lisa (Angelina Jolie) are particularly good in this movie.
A stunning and moving story of Susanna's illness and recovery and the nature of people and of mental ilness. It does a wonderfull job of removing some of the stigma that people associate with mental illness.
I would reccomend this movie in particular to people who are interested in mental illness or psychology or have such an ilness themselves (especially BPD) but also to anybody looking for a good movie. This is one of the best.
An inspiring must see film!.......2007-06-05
This movie has never received the acknowledgement it deserves. It is an amazing film which comes to life thanks to great performances of all the key actors, especially Angelina Jolie!
This is one of my favourite movies and has made me read Susanna Kaysen's book as well as a similar book by Sylvia Plath.
It is an incredibly inspiring film, showing that everyone could end up in a mental institution and giving these surprisingly 'normal' girls such personality with all their little quirks.
stunning movie.......2005-08-12
I would never have imagined that glamorous Hollywoord types could ever produce a drama of this inspiring quality. It is far far better than One Flew Over the Cuckoo's nest and I imagine I shall watch it many times.
Not just a 'female Cuckoo's Nest'.......2005-06-12
Ignore the critics - it's way too easy just to call Girl, Interrupted a 'Cuckoo's Nest with women'. The story and the atmosphere are both completely different.
Girl, Interrupted is based on a true story about one young woman's stay inside a psychiatric hospital. Eighteen-year-old Susanna Kaysen is questionably diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder and spends nearly two years on the ward for teenage girls - where she chooses to befriend her fellow inmates, a group of troubled young women.
If you think all movies set in mental institutions are depressing, think again - Girl, Interrupted is often amusing and uplifting, as well as dark and haunting. It has a brilliant cast - Winona Ryder, Angelina Jolie, Whoopi Goldberg, Brittany Murphy, Vanessa Redgrave and Jared Leto, to name but a few, are all outstanding in this compelling drama. Ryder's portrayal of Susanna Kaysen has been called 'weak' by the critics, which is ridiculous. Her performance isn't exactly powerful, but it's one of her best performances to date. Admittedly, though, Jolie outshines Ryder in this movie - she deservedly won an Oscar for her portrayal of fiesty sociopath Lisa Rowe, and anyone who saw 'Lara Croft: Tomb Raider' and then branded Jolie a 'terrible actress' should see this. Her performance alone is worth seeing this movie for - being an Angelina Jolie fan, you could accuse me of being biased, of course - but she is undeniably brilliant in this movie, bringing the screen to life with huge amounts of energy and emotion. Brittany Murphy is also superb in this movie, despite being slightly overlooked by the two lead characters.
Overall, Girl, Interrupted is a moving, inspirational drama. It's one of my favourite movies of all time, with one of my favourite performances from one of my favourite actresses. I recommend watching the movie with the director's commentary at least once - it's interesting and will provide you with lots of little-known information about the movie.
Appeals to a particular audience.......2004-10-30
I love this film so much and never tire of watching it. The acting is superb and the casting is amazing.
I would go on, but I think the film has been reviewed enough times so you get the idea. I do have one thing to add though, and that is that I think this film appeals to a very particular audience,maybe this is the reason for the mixed reviews from critics. People who have suffered from clinical depression or another mental illness (or who have friends and relatives who suffer from it) may recognise this as a very real and touching potrayal, whilst those who have not may not be able to fully appreciate just what a good job the film does. Obviously there will be people who enjoy and appreciate the film who have never had these problems and vice versa, but I thought it was a point worth making.
Amazon.co.uk Review
Based on Susanna Kaysen's acclaimed journal-memoir, Girl, Interrupted bears an 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 almost 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 institutionalisation 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 a semi-predictable 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, Amazon.com
Customer Reviews:
Incredible.......2008-02-03
This truely is one of the best movies ever made, I love it so much.
Based on the novel by Susanna Kaysen about the 18 months she spent in a mental institution for depression and Borderline Personality Disorder when she was 18 (which is a true story). Although I think that anybody would enjoy this movie, it's special to me because I also suffer from Borderline Personality Disorder myself and it's nice to see a movie which handles the subject sensitively.
Borderline Personality Disorder was a very controversial diagnosis in the 1960s (when this movie takes place), as even less was known about it than is now. Very little research was done into it back but the general diagnosis criteria and known sympoms were still the same:
1. Extreme black and white thinking (unable to see the grey area).
2. Unstable relationships characterised between feelings of idealation (love and adoration) and devaluation (anger and dislike).
3. Impulsivity, usually in self-destructive areas (e.g. binge eating, alcohol abuse, reckless driving, excessive spending and building up debt).
4. Mood swings between base (normal) mood, anxiety, irritability and depression.
5. Suicides threats or attempts or self mutilation (cutting, punching etc)
6. Irrational (to others) fear of abandonment and of being alone.
7. Outbursts of anger.
8. Shakey sence of self image - unsure about life goals, ambitions and belives such as what type of friends and lovers to have, carrer paths an sexual orientation.
9. Chronic and persistant feelings of emptyness (also described as boredom or loneliness).
The move is nicely paced and gets Susanna into the mental hospital within the first 10 or 15 minutes.
The characters include Polly (a schizophrenic who purposely set herself on fire as a child); Janet (an anorexic); Geogina, Susanna's room-mate (a pathological liar) and Lisa (a sociopath). The characters are all amazing well fleshed out and acted. They have very real and brilliantly acted emotions and personalities and are very beliveable as real people.
Susanna (Winona Ryder) and Lisa (Angelina Jolie) are particularly good in this movie.
A stunning and moving story of Susanna's illness and recovery and the nature of people and of mental ilness. It does a wonderfull job of removing some of the stigma that people associate with mental illness.
I would reccomend this movie in particular to people who are interested in mental illness or psychology or have such an ilness themselves (especially BPD) but also to anybody looking for a good movie. This is one of the best.
An inspiring must see film!.......2007-06-05
This movie has never received the acknowledgement it deserves. It is an amazing film which comes to life thanks to great performances of all the key actors, especially Angelina Jolie!
This is one of my favourite movies and has made me read Susanna Kaysen's book as well as a similar book by Sylvia Plath.
It is an incredibly inspiring film, showing that everyone could end up in a mental institution and giving these surprisingly 'normal' girls such personality with all their little quirks.
stunning movie.......2005-08-12
I would never have imagined that glamorous Hollywoord types could ever produce a drama of this inspiring quality. It is far far better than One Flew Over the Cuckoo's nest and I imagine I shall watch it many times.
Not just a 'female Cuckoo's Nest'.......2005-06-12
Ignore the critics - it's way too easy just to call Girl, Interrupted a 'Cuckoo's Nest with women'. The story and the atmosphere are both completely different.
Girl, Interrupted is based on a true story about one young woman's stay inside a psychiatric hospital. Eighteen-year-old Susanna Kaysen is questionably diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder and spends nearly two years on the ward for teenage girls - where she chooses to befriend her fellow inmates, a group of troubled young women.
If you think all movies set in mental institutions are depressing, think again - Girl, Interrupted is often amusing and uplifting, as well as dark and haunting. It has a brilliant cast - Winona Ryder, Angelina Jolie, Whoopi Goldberg, Brittany Murphy, Vanessa Redgrave and Jared Leto, to name but a few, are all outstanding in this compelling drama. Ryder's portrayal of Susanna Kaysen has been called 'weak' by the critics, which is ridiculous. Her performance isn't exactly powerful, but it's one of her best performances to date. Admittedly, though, Jolie outshines Ryder in this movie - she deservedly won an Oscar for her portrayal of fiesty sociopath Lisa Rowe, and anyone who saw 'Lara Croft: Tomb Raider' and then branded Jolie a 'terrible actress' should see this. Her performance alone is worth seeing this movie for - being an Angelina Jolie fan, you could accuse me of being biased, of course - but she is undeniably brilliant in this movie, bringing the screen to life with huge amounts of energy and emotion. Brittany Murphy is also superb in this movie, despite being slightly overlooked by the two lead characters.
Overall, Girl, Interrupted is a moving, inspirational drama. It's one of my favourite movies of all time, with one of my favourite performances from one of my favourite actresses. I recommend watching the movie with the director's commentary at least once - it's interesting and will provide you with lots of little-known information about the movie.
Appeals to a particular audience.......2004-10-30
I love this film so much and never tire of watching it. The acting is superb and the casting is amazing.
I would go on, but I think the film has been reviewed enough times so you get the idea. I do have one thing to add though, and that is that I think this film appeals to a very particular audience,maybe this is the reason for the mixed reviews from critics. People who have suffered from clinical depression or another mental illness (or who have friends and relatives who suffer from it) may recognise this as a very real and touching potrayal, whilst those who have not may not be able to fully appreciate just what a good job the film does. Obviously there will be people who enjoy and appreciate the film who have never had these problems and vice versa, but I thought it was a point worth making.
UK DVD:
- Girl With A Pearl Earring [2004]
- Goal 2 - Living The Dream [2007]
- Half Nelson [2006]
- Hamlet [1991]
- Henry VIII [2003]
- Honey [2004]
- Hope And Glory [1987]
- Hotel Babylon - Series 1 [2006]
- House Of Cards : Complete BBC Series Trilogy Box Set [1990]
- Il Postino [1995]
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