Girl, Interrupted

The movie, “Girl, Interrupted” was one I overlooked for many years. It was the 1999 Academy Award winner for Angelina Jolie as actress in a supporting role. She well deserved this award. This movie shows her at the absolute raw talent best. The movie itself was outstanding with a host of other well know actress’ such as Winona Ryder, Whoopi Goldberg, and the talented Vanessa Redgrave. This all star cast gives a stellar performance from beginning to end.

This is a true story about a young teenage girl’s stay at a psychiatric hospital in the late 1960′s. It shows not only her story but it shows the lives around her that were forever etched into her soul. These individual stories become one as the movie goes along telling and showing how life in a psychiatric ward can be as caotic as life in the outside world. The bonds these girls form between each other are as real as the bonds any friends make and they come to depend on each other for support during some of their most difficult times.

The movie shows the way one most not only cope with the outside world and those around us but how we most learn to cope with ourselves and our own life. The movie is marred with tragedy and is even more so as one understands that this was based on real life events.

The movie is a bit long at one hundered and twenty seven minutes but you are mesmorized by the characters which you come to care about in the two hours you spend with them, hoping for the best and wishing with each of them for a recovery that is not always able to occur for them. You are able to feel their pain and share in their triumphs and laugh with them during their acting out periods which are nothing more than typical teenagers no matter the setting. This movie is a must see for adults and it was given an R rating for strong language and content relating to drugs, sexuality and suicide.