Movie Review: Girl, Interrupted ~ Angelina Jolie Nails It

Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie's plot.

When you don't want to feel... death can seem like a dream. But, seeing death - really seeing it... makes dreaming about it fucking ridiculous.

Many movies have attempted to portray psychological disorders, but few have succeeded as well as James Mangold's 1999 masterpiece: Girl, Interrupted. This one nails it dead on.

Based on the book by Susanna Kaysen (which I've not read), this story follows our author (played magnificently by Winona Ryder) through her stint at a mental institution as a teen. She's really just going through a fairly normal level of teen angst, but has been mislabled as a Borderline Personality Disorder (the flavor of the decade, I might add.. grrr). While here she meets several gals who do belong here, and as a result comes to several life-altering realizations.

While Ryder gets top billing in this one, the real star of the show is Angelina Jolie as Lisa (a true Borderline). Jolie's portrayal was so dead on it gave me the chills. I should qualify this view right now by stating that I have been on both sides of this particular fence having been put in one of these places as a teen for evaluation, and later as a therapist myself helping kids like this (or trying to). I've seen so many Lisas in my life, and even saw a bit of my own youth in her. This is by far Jolie's most spectacular role to date.

I almost didn't even recognize Brittany Murphy as the schizophrenic Daisy. Again, outstanding performance here. In fact let's just save time and typing by saying that everyone involved here went above and beyond in this one. Other names you will recognize are Clea Duvall, Elisabeth Moss, Jared Leto, Vanessa Redgrave, and even Whoopi Goldberg as the nurse who understands these girls more than most shrinks would.

Girl, Interrupted runs 127 minutes and is Rated R for strong language and content relating to drugs, sexuality and suicide. Well, yeah.. but I strongly feel this is one that might be of benefit to young teens. Do let them watch it, and you watch it with them. Look. Learn. Use it as a springboard to communication.