Girl, Interrupted

James Mangold (1999)

122min

15 Certificate

Review

Our Score

by Jason Caro

This commendable but lightweight drama from director/co-writer James Mangold has a similar agenda to Milos Forman's classic One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, but it never reaches the same peaks of poignancy. Winona Ryder stars as the teen who is shipped off to a New England psychiatric institution in 1967, where other inmates give her a new perspective on life. The film is extremely well cast, with Oscar winner Angelina Jolie mesmerising as a pushy, pouting troublemaker, and Whoopi Goldberg good value as a no-nonsense nurse, while Mangold makes clever use of jarring narrative cuts to convey Ryder's confused state of mind. Yet there's a definite feeling the producers were hoping to set off brighter emotional fireworks than this well-intentioned movie actually provides.

Summary

A would-be writer in the 1960s is committed to an exclusive psychiatric ward by her parents after attempting suicide, but the move seems to cause more problems than it solves. Fact-based drama, starring Winona Ryder and an Oscar-winning Angelina Jolie alongside Clea Duvall, Brittany Murphy, Whoopi Goldberg and Vanessa Redgrave.

Cast & Crew

Susanna Kaysen Winona Ryder

Lisa Angelina Jolie

Daisy Brittany Murphy

Georgina Clea DuVall

Valerie Whoopi Goldberg

Dr Potts Jeffrey Tambor

Tobias Jacobs Jared Leto

Dr Wick Vanessa Redgrave

Mrs Gilcrest Mary Kay Place

Dr Crumble Kurtwood Smith

Polly "Torch" Clark Elisabeth Moss

Annette Kaysen Joanna Kerns

Director James Mangold

Other Information

Language: EnglishColourTheatrical distributor: Columbia TriStarGuidance: Contains swearing and sex scenes.Available on: video and DVDReleased on: 24 Mar 2000

Drama

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James Mangold (1999)

Review

Summary

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