Girl Interrupted

Girl, Interrupted 
1999 Film produced by 3 Art Entertainment
Directed by James Mangold
Starring Winona Rider, Angelina Jolie, and Whoppi Goldberg
Based on the autobiographical book, Girl, Interrupted, by Susanna Kaysen

Plot - Susanna is wrecking her own life and may be taking others' with her.  She is directionless after high school, being the only student to graduate without a plan to go to college, has sex far too quickly with far too many men, including her parents' friend's husband, and begins to exhibit signs of mental illness according to the mores of the times.  After deciding to take an entire bottle of aspirin with a bottle of vodka, and surviving, she is sent to an all-women's ward at Claymoore, a mental institution very close to her family home.  It is there that Susanna comes to know just what is wrong with her and what might be right.  She begins to make friends with the other patients, including a bulimic who was sexually abused by her father, a severe burn victim, her compulsive liar roommmate, and Lisa, a sociopath who truly runs the underground show in the ward.  Lisa, an irresistibly compelling character, captivates Susanna and begins to pull Susanna under her spell.  When the girls all escape under Lisa's direction and the night out ends in tragedy, Susanna begins to see the choice she must make--growing up or digging in and making a home at Claymoore for a very, very long time.

Critical Evaluation - Girl, Interrupted is a gripping story filled with beautifully realized characters in an ensemble cast that works seamlessly together.  Each character depends in some way on each other one, until the climax crisis when the whole house of cards falls.  The acting is brilliant, both pacing and emotional expression.  The scenery and location, shot in Hanover, PA and at Harrisburg State Hospital in PA, are suitably dry to express the world Susanna goes into Clamoore thinking she has to face.  The film's emotional impact is heavy, as the tone overall is hyper-realistic.  The girls banter and funny scenes are there, but the theme is clear throughout--live now and for what there actually is in the world, or lose it all to fear.  The audience is taken for a rough ride through Susanna's realization that an imperfect world is worth living in over a life given up on.

Reader's annotation - Susanna doesn't want to live anymore, it's just all too much.  But when she goes to spend a number of weeks at a mental hospital, her new friends show her what too much really looks like.

Information about the author - Susanna Kaysen is not a glamorous figure, not a "writer's writer," as it were, but she has been able to craft stories, the honesty and simplicity of which have attracted readers for years.  She grew up and lives still in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  Her father was an Ivy League economics professor, and in the 1960's when Kaysen was growing up she decided to avoid college altogether, though she does not link these two facts as cause and effect.  She did attempt suicide, was put into McLean Hospital and kept a diary there.  She wrote copy after that, and eventually published Asa, As I Knew Him in 1987, and Far Afield in 1994.  Her new book, a memoir called The Camera My Mother Gave Me was published in 2002. 
Genre - Biography, drama
Curriculum Ties - Not a likely book for class study.
Filmtalk ideas - 

1. Show a quick clip from the scene in which the girls escape for the night, followed by Susanna's walking up the stairs to the sound of the skipping record in Daisy's room (cut before Susanna discovers Daisy).
2. Show part of the scene where Nurse Valerie has Susanna in a cold tub and begins to tell her what's really wrong with her.

Viewer level -The film is rated "R," so 17+.  The content includes sex, drugs, violence, and reference to abuse.  Seventeen and 18 year olds, however, will most likely have seen films by that point that far outstrip this one for questionable content.

Challenge issues - Many, including sexual content, abuse, cursing, parents who "don't get it," and drugs

Challenge defense ideas:

• Librarian must view the film carefully and include it as a resource intended for teens 17 and above only.
• Librarian greets students and regularly discusses their viewing choices; she provides individualized, age-appropriate guidance in film choice.
• Explain the ways in which the librarian accompanies and guides younger students looking for films, and knows students well as individuals.
• Explain that the film is an important coming of age story full of the protagonist's growing knowledge that growing up is her own job.
• Keep the film reserved for 17+ age students.

Why I included this film- YALSA included Girl Interrupted in its 2010 "Fabulous Films for Young Adults" under the year's theme, "Outside In:  Rebellion vs. Conformity."  The story is an important one, I think, for girls in particular as they move from high school to college.  High School is a time when excesses of teenage angst can get very serious, even deadly, and this film shows the true story of a girl who woke up, as it were, from her own suffering while living with others who truly would never emerge from their own.  Her reemergence into life is certainly helped along by those who both care for her and appear to hate her, Nurse Valerie and Lisa, respectively.  But it is Susanna who ultimately moves herself back into society, and this empowering message is an important one for older teens.