Review of Girl, Interrupted (1999) by Jess L — 02 Feb 2013

I'm not a fan of Winona Ryder or her films, but I will make an exception for this dark, moving, multiple character portrait about a misunderstood girl struggling with minor mental illness. When Susan lands in a mental hospital there's some doubt about the accuracy of her diagnosis even though part of the description seems to fit her.

Exasperated, cynical, emotionally fragile Susana, who has committed herself to escape what she perceives as the craziness of the world around her, soon learns what crazy really is when she must deal with an calloused, irrational bureaucracy, and truly disturbed fellow patients. She precariously allows herself to become institutionalized, fighting the system and forming a tenuous alliance with a psychopathic lesbian, while struggling to make some sense of her experience.

Unwilling to grow up and confront her condition, Susan's actions lead to a tragedy which sets off a chain of events that finally enable her to gain some perspective But does it all come too late?