Movie Review: Girl, Interrupted

The movie Girl, Interrupted is based on the book Girl, Interrupted, by Susanna Kaysen. I would like to say that it is loosely based because although the actress, Winona Ryder, does portray Kaysen’s borderline personality, it seems that Angelina Jolie, who is Lisa Rowe in the movie, steals the spotlight. Girl, Interrupted is about a young girl who is put into the mental ward after an attempted suicide which she claims she was basically trying to leave a lot of stress she had from various experiences behind. Some of these experiences include wrist banging, having an affair with a teacher, and sleeping with men that had little respect for her. While at the ward, she meets many young girls who all have their own psychological problems that range from being mentally unstable due to sexual abuse, pathological liars, and even sociopaths who have a hard time engaging in social activities without causing an uprising. However, after realizing her only way to escape, Kaysen begins to turn to her doctors and a journal to escape the ward. There is one character that Kaysen turns to at the beginning of her treatment, Lisa Rowe. Lisa Rowe was placed in the ward since she is diagnosed as a sociopath. Her disorder is portrayed as a free-spirited woman who dominates all the other women in the ward with her attitude and actions. The film portrays her as someone who does not care about her therapy which includes sedatives and various other medications along with seeing therapists. Lisa “tongues” her medications and seems to treat her visits with her therapists as a nuisance to her time. Other females in the ward treat Rowe as though she is a queen as they fear what she may do if they do not obey her. For instance, when Rowe bums a cigarette off of Kaysen, a lighter is readily lighted by another woman and waiting for Rowe. One interesting thing about Rowe’s disorder that the movie portrays is that she lacks the ability to recognize others’ emotional feelings. During an extremely