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Girl, Interrupted (film)

Article

Girl, Interrupted is a 2000 drama film about a teen's 18-month stay at a mental institution, starring Winona Ryder, Academy Award winner Angelina Jolie, Academy Award winner Whoopi Goldberg, Academy Award winner Vanessa Redgrave and Brittany Murphy. It was adapted from the original memoir of the same name, written by Susanna Kaysen. The film was directed by James Mangold, from a screenplay written by Mangold, Anna Hamilton Phelan and Lisa Loomer.

Plot

Susanna Kaysen (Ryder), 18 years old in April 1967, "voluntarily" (her parents essentially force her to go there, and she is not free to leave until the staff approves her release) checks herself into the fictitious Claymoore Hospital (based on McLean Hospital, the actual institution featured in the memoir), after an overdose of aspirin, and her stay extends for over a year.

She befriends fellow patients Polly "Torch" Clark (Elisabeth Moss), a burn victim; Georgina Tuskin (Clea DuVall), a pathological liar; Daisy Randone (Brittany Murphy), a sexually abused girl with an eating disorder and who cuts herself; Janet Webber (Angela Bettis), an anorexic; Cynthia Crowley (Jillian Armenante), whose only disorder seems to be a proclivity to dress like men and is there because her parents don't want to see her; and others, and forms a small troupe of troubled women in her ward. Susanna is enchanted in particular by Lisa Rowe (Angelina Jolie), who has been diagnosed as a sociopath (as in the book, it is left to interpretation whether she actually is one). Lisa is a force to be reckoned with: she is magnetic, rebellious, won't take her medication and verbally abuses the other patients. Lisa befriends Susanna and together they start causing trouble. Lisa encourages Susanna to stop taking her medications and/or trade them with others, and generally resist the influences of therapy (referred to by the patients as "ther-rape-me").
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Girl, Interrupted (film)".

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