Date Released: 1999
Director: James Mangold
Actors/ Characters: Winona Ryder/ Susanna, Angelina Jolie Pitt/ Lisa , Clea DuVall/ Georgina, Brittany Murphy/ Daisy, Elisabeth Moss/ Polly, Whoopi Goldberg/ Valerie and Jared Leto/ Tobias Jacobs
Summary: Based on writer Susanna Kaysen's account of her 18-month stay at a mental hospital in the 1960s.
Review
If I am honest with you I was really disappointed with this film. I just didn't see what all the fuss was about. I had heard really good things about this film and going into it I was excited to see what was so great about this film. But unfortunately the credits rolled and I just felt... unfulfilled. I was imagining a film full of dramatic psychopaths and mentally disturbed murderers but all I got was a slightly dysfunctional group of women residing in a mental hospital.
I think the main let down in this film was the narrative. For the majority of this film I was waiting for something to happen- and it didn't. The most dramatic part of the film was Daisy's suicide and even then it felt anti-climactic, I just expected more. The narrative mainly consisted of the woman struggling to understand their disorders and conditions which was interesting but there was no real action that I expected due to the women's mental health states.
I think there was a lack of narrative because the film was supposed to be a character driven one however I did not connect with the character as I perhaps should have done in order to be fully immersed in the story so I just found myself as a passive watcher and not someone who was invested in the story. This was an especially big negative of the film since I didn't even relate or empathise with Susanna- the film's protagonist- so from the onset of the film I was not interested. In truth the only character I truly enjoyed watching and felt sympathy for was Georgina, I adored her contagious happiness throughout the film and it was quite upsetting to see her any different.
The most interesting character however was definitely Lisa. Angelina Jolie executed this role brilliantly and believably. Lisa was a very complex female and I was never sure her intentions or how she would tackle a situation. Even by the end of the film I felt she was still quite mysterious and I liked that about her character.
An element I really respected about the film was how it represented the mental health care system. I often find in media texts mental hospitals are reflected in a negative light, having corrupt nurses like in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and horrible medical procedures that are uncivilised and unethical. However this film created a brilliant representation of a mental hospital that actually did what it was meant to and helped its patients rather than treating them as second class citizens.
Another part of the film I enjoyed about the film was the guitar scene in which Susanna and Lisa calm Polly down. This scene was so light hearted and the tone was so much happier than the rest of the film which I enjoyed.
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