directed by james mangold . screenplay by mangold , lisa loomer and anna hamilton phelan , based on the book by susanna kaysen . starring winona ryder , angelina jolie , whoopi goldberg . running time : 147 minutes . rated aa for mature subject matter and offensive language . reviewed on february 28th , 2000 . shortly after her 1967 high school graduation , susanna kaysen ( winona ryder ) nearly kills herself with a cocktail of aspirin and vodka . " i had a headache , " she explains after being committed to the claymoore mental hospital . but susanna's brush with death is really symptomatic of the sheer aimlessness of her life . she is the only member of her class not heading off for college . while much of the united states is swept up in the furor of the vietnam war , susanna seems almost oblivious . so it is hardly surprising that someone so lacking in direction could allow control of her life to be handed to the doctors and nurses at claymoore . at least now , direction will be forced on her if nothing else . " girl , interrupted " is based on true events , depicted in kaysen's book of the same title . kaysen lost a year and a half of her life in a women's mental ward , and the film recounts the experiences which inspired susanna to retake control of her own destiny . despite a lack of real incident , the first half of the movie is riveting . we are introduced to some of the other girls in susanna's ward , including a disfigured young pyrophile named polly ( elizabeth moss ) ; susanna's roommate georgina ( clea duvall ) , who seeks refuge in the " oz " books of l frank baum ; and daisy ( brittany murphy ) , a woman with peculiar dietary beliefs . these characters are portrayed evenhandedly ; their mental problems are neither sugarcoated nor demonized , and they seem real . watching over everything is valerie ( whoopi goldberg ) , a stern but caring nurse who understands in minutes what the psychiatrists themselves never really figure out : that susanna has come to claymoore not for help , but simply to be . " do not drop anchor here , " valerie warns susanna , knowing that the doctors are perfectly content to keep her locked up forever . since there is nothing really wrong with susanna , how can she ever be cured ? everything is stirred up by the arrival of lisa ( angelina jolie ) , an aggressive young woman who is no stranger to claymoore . despite the fact that lisa herself has no desire to remain hospitalized ( when we first meet her , she has just been recaptured after a two week absence ) , it is her presence which is susanna's most attractive reason for staying in the asylum . lisa plays the leader of the ragtag band of patients , taking them on secret midnight excursions through secret passages and into restricted areas of the hospital . for a time , claymoore seems less like an insane asylum and more like summer camp . of course , a mental ward is not summer camp , and eventually events conspire to remind susanna of this fact . it is this reality -- and how susanna reacts to it -- which comprises the film's second , more uneven half . much of " girl , interrupted " is a careful character study . we are witness to how insanity affects everyone from the delusional themselves , to those charged with their care , to the average people who by some happenstance come into contact with them . the film also observes how madness can be a relative and elusive concept . some of claymoore's patients have no business being there ( susanna herself , for instance ) , while some are there purely because of social tenets which today seem increasingly outdated ( one woman's only " problem " is that she is a lesbian ) . but , more darkly , not all of those released and declared sane truly are , and this sets up the movie's most disturbing sequence . unfortunately , after an hour of terrific characterization and well-chosen set pieces , " girl , interrupted " 's final twenty minutes are a huge step backward into melodrama . these scenes feel awkwardly grafted onto the rest of the film , as though scriptwriters james mangold ( who also directed ) , lisa loomer and anna hamilton phelan were afraid audiences would not be satisfied with a straightforward character study . instead , the movie ends with a lot of contrived angst and , yes , even a chase scene ( albeit one that is nicely photographed by mangold ) . the cast is well chosen ; while it would be very easy to play any of the claymoore inmates over the top , all the actors stay grounded in reality , and this lends authenticity to the picture . jolie is terrific in a role that has already earned her an oscar nomination and golden globe award . of all the characters , it is lisa who could most easily have been taken too far , but jolie knows her limits . it is clear that she is having a great deal of fun in the role ; jolie really gets her teeth into the part , portraying as much of lisa's personality in her body language and the inflection of her voice as in her actual words and deeds . ryder's performance , meanwhile , is understated but not bland , projecting susanna's uncertainty and desperation while making it clear that she should never have been committed . denouement aside , " girl , interrupted " is an absorbing venture inside the walls of a mental institution . both scripting and acting are up to the challenge of translating kaysen's experiences convincingly onto the screen . although it lacks the power and drama of " one flew over the cuckoo's nest " , to which it is perhaps most readily comparable , " girl , interrupted " should not be overlooked . copyright © 2000 shannon patrick sullivan . archived at <a href= " http : //www . physics . mun . ca/~sps/movies/girlinterrupted . html " >http : //www . physics . mun . ca/~sps/movies/girlinterrupted . html</a> 
