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Co-scripted by director James Mangold (Knight & Day, 3:10 to Yuma, Walk the Line), who I find underrated given his reliable track record, Girl, Interrupted neither conveys the feeling of rejection nor the moments of hopelessness experienced in a mental institution. What we get is girl bonding in hospital gowns.

Ryder, who produced the film and was attached to it for over seven years, delivers a fine performance. However, being thrown in as a shy girl who is less mental than ambivalent against characters with bigger than life personalities, she doesn’t hold her own - especially since she largely co-stars next to the biggest personality of all – Lisa Rowe. Jolie steals Ryder’s thunder. Even with significantly less screen time, Jolie is the one person people come away from this movie talking about.

Witnessing her getting lost in the role, Jolie is superb as the sociopathic Rowe, scarily heartless. Prior to Girl, Jolie mainly played the girl-to-look-at role, but the part of Lisa catapulted her in to a different light. I find it interesting to imagine what roles Jolie would have taken later if it weren’t for her next two movies (Gone in 60 Second and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider), which launched her into being one of Hollywood’s most consistently bankable (especially in terms of action movies that are dominated by men) stars.

Critics were split on the film. Ranking in at 54% on Rotten Tomatoes (40% among Top Critics), I was surprised how low the score was. Sure, the film is Hollywood-fied and skimps on some details, especially in terms of psychiatric evaluations and what the hell the title even means, but by and large I enjoyed it – especially the performances, which seem to be the one high note mentioned throughout the reviews.

Even though the film was given the cold shoulder by critics, the Best Supporting Actress win at the Oscars goes to show how strong Jolie’s performance was. It was the movie’s only nomination. She swept the Golden Globes and SAG Awards as well.

The bad reviews didn’t bode well for its box office. Released in nine theaters, Girl, Interrupted opened in 37th place with a so-so $10,599 per theater average. It didn’t break $1 million by the time it went wide in mid-January to the tune of nearly $9 million in 1,902 theaters. Not sticking around for long enough to take advantage of the free promotion from its few award wins, Interrupted topped out at $28.9 million ($45.3 million adjusted) against a $40 million budget.

Told from an interesting perspective of young women, Girl, Interrupted should have easily differentiated itself from other films taking place in mental institutions. However, since it is chock full of plot clichés, has a saggy middle, and suffers from a slightly anticlimactic final showdown between Lisa and Susanna, Girl, Interrupted has to rely on its strong performances to bolster it above Lifetime material (a channel you can catch the movie on quite frequently).

Better than the reputation it has been given, Girl, Interrupted is emotionally moving even though the plot remains more static than one would desire. For a movie taking place in the loony bin, I wish that James Mangold would loosen his directorial reigns and make things more … crazy.

Verdict: With Us
8 out of 10

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