Girl, Interrupted

Back in the late 1990s, when it was announced that Susanna Kaysen's 1993 memoir Girl, Interrupted would be turned into a movie, many actresses were reportedly fighting to join the cast that included a number of strong female leads.

In the end, Winona Ryder was chosen to play Susanna Kaysen, a teenage girl who overdoses on aspirin and is admitted to psychiatric hospital. While in the 1960s institution, she meets and befriends many of the other patients, including sociopath Lisa (Angelina Jolie) and schizophrenic Polly (Elisabeth Moss), and nurses including Valerie (Whoopi Goldberg).

It is difficult to believe that at the release of Girl, Interrupted Angeline Jolie was barely starting in her acting career. This was a time before Tom...

Sometimes you see them as crazy or mentally ill, but they are the cure that keeps you from going crazy if you love them. The movie touched my feelings when I realized that we were the disease that penetrated their bodies and made these angels crazy

Winona Ryder is on great form here in this rather brutally frank look at a girl struggling with mental health issues. "Susanna" had been rushed to hospital by her worried parents after an apparent attempt at suicide. Diagnosed with a potential personality disorder, she is admitted to the "Claymoore" facility under the care of "Dr. Wick" (Vanessa Redgrave) and nurse "Valerie" (Whoopi Goldberg). As you'd expect, this place has a multitude of characters inside and she (and we) are introduced to a mixture ranging from the pathological liar to the anorexic, the sociopath to the schizophrenic. Some are friendlier to her, others ignore her altogether. It's "Lisa" (Angelina Jolie) whom she seems to relate to her best. She is a controlling character...