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Girl, Interrupted
EMAILPRINTSony Pictures Entertainment

Mixed or average reviews
Based on 32 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 21 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama
Written by:
Susanna Kaysen (book)
James Mangold
Lisa Loomer
Anna Hamilton Phelan
Directed by: James Mangold
Release Date:
Theatrical: December 21, 1999
DVD: June 6, 2000
Running Time: 127 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: R for strong language and content relating to drugs, sexuality and suicide
Starring Winona Ryder, Angelina Jolie, Vanessa Redgrave, and Whoopi Goldberg
In the 1960's a young woman (Ryder) commits herself to a mental institute after being diagnosed with BPD (Borderline Personality Disorder). Based on writer Susanna Kaysen's account of her 18-month stay at a mental hospital.
Also On Metacritic
FILM: 3:10 to Yuma Cop Land Identity Kate & Leopold Walk the Line
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
Shrewd, tough, and lively -- a junior-league "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest."
Read Full Review >TNT RoughCut Sarah Raskin
Despite uneven pacing -- Girl, Interrupted deftly collapses then and now to create a very personal film filled with heart-tugs and surprisingly funny moments.
Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
They have turned a brief, appealing, honest autobiography by Susanna Kaysen into a long, appealing, rather dishonest film.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Phoebe Flowers
A rare movie, one that manages to be both quiet and electrifying, touching and unnerving. But it is not a great movie, even though its stars deserve for it to be.
Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy
Fabulously acted throughout.
San Francisco Examiner Wesley Morris
In Winona Ryder's case, Girl Interrupted is a showcase in which her brittle, angry portrait shows she has graduated from ingenue to actress.
Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey
The performances in Girl, Interrupted resonate, but the movie does not.
Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
Top performances keep true-life mental ward tale Girl, Interrupted soaring, despite a script that frequently drifts into genre clichés.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
Jolie's explosive performance surpasses all expectations and renders the film a veritable must-see.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer Paula Nechak
For all its somber heaviness and reverential gravity, it never quite pulls all the elements and themes together.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
The movie -- even though it's based on real events -- seems unsatisfying and unconvincing.
New York Post Jonathan Foreman
It's an odd mixture of an unsentimental, darkly humorous take on mental illness with the usual Hollywood loony-bin cliches.
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
The story, having failed to provide itself with character conflicts that can be resolved with drama, turns to melodrama instead.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
There's very little plot, and director Mangold's attempts to make a connection between the social confusion of the '60s and Susanna's inner turmoil don't really work.
Read Full Review >Variety Emanuel Levy
A solid central performance by Winona Ryder and a captivating wild turn by Angelina Jolie in the yarn's flashiest role.
Read Full Review >Newsweek David Ansen
Barring one dreadfully trumped-up climactic scene, they've managed to avoid the usual asylum-movie cliches.
Village Voice Abby McGanney Nolan
Contains some nicely restrained turns, like Clea Duval as Kaysen's Oz-obsessed roommate, but mainly it's a showcase for Ryder's winsome victim
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jami Bernard
Unusual in that it spotlights a common but largely unsung variety of teenage female angst.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Stephen Holden
A small, intense period piece with a tough-love attitude toward lazy, self-indulgent little girls flirting with madness.
Read Full Review >Film.com Peter Brunette
An excellent coming-of-age story that is, for once, and very happily, focussed on a teenage girl.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Peter Stack
A sappy, muddled production that misses the jarring tone of the autobiographical book by Susanna Kaysen on which it is based.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
Always worth watching when Angelina Jolie steps to the fore. Somehow, she takes a thuddingly ill-conceived role and turns it into gold
Read Full Review >USA Today Susan Wloszczyna
Ryder's commitment is impressive. If her movie only had her courage.
Read Full Review >Mr. Showbiz Michael Atkinson
Mangold ultimately delivers the same film any number of other Hollywood journeyman could've made from this material, and the results are predictable and stale.
Washington Post Rita Kempley
Tired conventions, hoary themes and obvious conclusions.
Read Full Review >Dallas Observer Jean Oppenheimer
Doesn't come close to matching the emotional depth and power of Frank Perry's 1962 "David and Lisa," the most involving and affecting film I've ever seen about teenagers and mental illness.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Ernest Hardy
Mangold can't escape the fact that instead of someone in the throes of a genuine existential crisis, his star comes off as -- to paraphrase nurse Whoopi Goldberg -- a spoiled, lazy girl who's afraid to face life.
Read Full Review >Film.com John Hartl
Mangold ultimately can't displace memories of "An Angel at My Table," "Lilith," "The Snake Pit," "I Never Promised You a Rose Garden" and other, stronger accounts of young women placed in mental institutions.
Read Full Review >Film.com Gemma Files
Ends up suffering from the classic diseases of book-to-film adaptation: triteness, overreliance of narration, and a general "need" to impose classic dramatic structure on what is not a particularly dramatic narrative.
Baltimore Sun Ann Hornaday
It's as if the book itself has been locked up and institutionalized, forced to conform to a system that all but obliterates its own unique personality.
Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
For a movie about people with hugely complicated inner lives, this sadly unconvincing drama stays resolutely on the surface, rarely hinting at anything like an insight or idea.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 8.1 (out of 10) based on 21 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
James B. gave it a3:
English teachers should not show the movie to the students because the book was much better.
Nat C. gave it an8:
Painfull life turned into amazing book turned into great well acted/ thoughtout film! top knoch!
Sammy gave it a10:
Very good movie. Great actresses.
Sylwia P. gave it a10:
The best film I have ever seen.
Jane A. gave it a 9:
Really good.
Pat C. gave it a 7:
Those who have lived with the mentally ill should find something comforting and relevant in this film. Those who haven't will now want to avoid them at all costs.
Nikki H. gave it a 10:
This movie was gr8!!!
