It's getting harder to answer the question, "What did the author want to say?" Instead, I will try to express what thoughts appear in my head after watching the film.
At first glance, a psychiatric hospital is a place where life is interrupted. However, the hospital is only a visual part of the scenario in which a person who is not in the best part of his life is immersed. Life can be interrupted and outside the walls of the medical institution. Yes, and a person may seem healthy, but his life is interrupted. He is like a corpse carried by a slow current, he no longer thinks himself otherwise. It takes strength and courage to get out of this state. Some will find strength and some will not.
P.S. It is interesting how important are places where someone is needed and interesting. Even if it's a psychiatric clinic, it's going to be a drag.
Psychological 'recovery' through trauma (or reality treatment)
I came across this 1999 film by accident. Almost immediately I was surprised by the concentration of young stars: Winona Ryder, Angelina Jolie, Britain Murphy, Jared Leto, Whoopi Goldberg... and it’s worth it! And no, it's not another "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." It is also based on a book.
The action takes place in a women's psychiatric hospital, where the main character Suzanne gets after an unsuccessful suicide attempt. A psychiatrist diagnoses her with borderline personality disorder (BPD). Throughout the film, she tries to understand her disorder and herself, largely through interactions with other residents of this clinic.
I was particularly interested in the psychological aspect of the healing process. And in my opinion, it was well opened, albeit concisely. The key point was the tragic incident with one of the girls. At this point, there is a turn in the consciousness of the heroine. I literally felt the difference between the beginning and the end. And of course, the characters Lisa and Daisy played an important role in the recovery.
She said, “May this world be cruel and stupid, but I still want to be in it.” She made an important decision, a decision to live. And so she started a deep process of self-healing, she opened up to the help of doctors, she began to become aware of her feelings, to express her emotions and to be compassionate. “Healed”, but at the same time did not lose its uniqueness, but rather found itself, took responsibility for her life.
I know few people have time for movies right now, but if they do, you can give it a chance.
James Mangold is undoubtedly an interesting director. I love Logan, Ford v Ferrari, Kate and Leo and The Police. Definitely deserves attention and "Life Interrupted". I first saw this movie when I was a kid. And the impressions after a more detailed viewing are very ambiguous.
The plot of the picture is far from perfect. It's got enough roughness and roughness. Many moves are fairly predictable. I did not like the director’s approach, which in some moments seems to deliberately try to put pressure on the viewer and bring emotions. I did not like the main character of the picture. It is difficult to bring yourself to empathize with a spoiled, and at the same time quite cruel, girl from a far from poor family who does not know what she wants.
Of the positive aspects, I want to highlight the atmosphericity of the picture, which is always famous for Mangold’s works and a moderate presentation of material. I will note the successful musical accompaniment. I also want to praise the filmmakers for their excellent casting. It was somewhat unusual to see the incredibly comic Whoopi Goldberg in a serious role, but the actress coped with her task more than successfully. She played the role of Winona Ryder organically. She's the right type. But the main advantage of the picture is the then very young beauty Angelina Jolie, for whom this role was a real breakthrough in her career and finally consolidated the star status of the actress. She didn’t get her Oscar for her beautiful eyes and plump lips. If it were not for her brilliant performance, "Life Interrupted" would remain on the shelf of passing films, which easily fade from memory.
7 out of 10
If you want to understand what mental disorders are and how to live with them, then watch this film, because it perfectly depicts the life of such people. It also shows how a mental hospital works from the inside out. The plot tells us about a girl Suzanne, who enters a psychiatric clinic, where she is diagnosed with a “borderline state”. There she meets local residents, and makes friends with a girl named Lisa. Lisa herself is the most charismatic character in the film, and watching her is more enjoyable than watching the main character, because she knows how to enjoy insanity, although her example shows how crazy is destructive. She wants to run away from the world, jump on men, tell everyone the hard truth and attract all the attention. The philosophical concept of the film is built on the confrontation of Susanna and Lisa. The main character at heart wants to overcome the disease, and Lisa claims that the doctors in the hospital do not want to help, and the fact that all mental illnesses are fiction and nonsense. The very life of a madhouse with feeding pills, walks, calls, canteens, bathrooms under supervision, etc. is very similar to the life of Russian hospitals. The most important thing is that the film shows that there are no cruel experiments, lobotomies, etc. in mental hospitals. Speaking of acting, I can safely say that this is Jolie’s best role. Playing a psycho is a natural thing to do. Ryder, too, has done a great job in her role, because she shows a person’s journey from the onset of illness to healing. Therefore, if you are interested in the topic of insanity and the life of mental hospitals, then be sure to watch this movie!
I didn't get the point. I thought all the characters were GG's hidden identities, but no. . In general, it was interesting to watch, given the young Winon, Angelina, Whoopi, etc.
An autobiographical film based on the book by Suzanne Caysen, who suffers from borderline personality disorder, whose diaries express the brokenness and emptiness into which American society in the late 1960s plunged in the face of a particular individual, makes the film a rather loud sign. Add to this, designed to embody this idea, two very bright actresses - Winona Ryder and crazy Angelina Jolie; a plot about a mental hospital, where the girl will have a battle with an invisible enemy; promising shots; audience rating; awards ... and we will get a picture with a downright prohibitive level of expectations! For example, you would expect to see a version of Harmful Fred, where a hyperactive girlfriend would end up being an imaginary ghost; or a story about “girls in a cage” with the horrors of punitive medicine and sexual harassment; finally, something extremely existential, as in the film. Someone flew over the nest of the cuckoo, especially since the idea of the film is very consistent with this American proverb.
But none of this is in the film.
It is not that it does not exist at all, it is simply served, in medical terms, in some homeopathic doses. It was necessary to try to make something so narrow and incomprehensible out of such a spacious idea for creativity, and already clothed in a literary form. What was the meaning of the main character’s stay in the clinic; what radically changed inside her and her girlfriends; what is the morality of this fable? The most convincing answer to these questions is the heroine herself: I wasted a year staying here. Well, well, I wasted two hours watching this movie.
All these candid speeches, hysterical to the sociopath Lisa in the finale of the film, do not seem at all convincing to get any significant existential discovery out of them. The culmination of the tape seems to be reading Susanna’s intimate diary, but the revelations gleaned from it are so sluggish and insignificant that they do not pull even for a passing scene, whose place is in the middle of the film. If you focus on this (and this really needs to be done!), then this thread should be conducted from the very beginning of the tape, so that in the finale the main character at least wrote a bestseller novel. But in the end, not even that. Everything happens for no reason. The narrative is a kind of everyday life description; penetration into the inner world of trauma is minimal. Anyone who wants to see a real film about insanity, let him watch the film of Roman Polanski "Disgust" - this is an observation of insanity from the inside, and without any psychiatric and other template paraphernalia.
It was not in vain that the plot was focused on the interaction of Suzanne and the head nurse, who considered her more a lazy spoiled girl than a crazy one. If we were to develop this idea more boldly, we could give a really powerful tape, but everything stops somewhere in the middle of a word, limiting itself to single monologues, and when it comes time to really express your thoughts to the psychotherapist, they all for some reason stubbornly remain behind the scenes. It seems that because of her bipolarity, the main character initially did not care. And so goes the whole movie, the beginning of which is indistinguishable from its end. As a result, neither one nor the other: well, lived a year in a madhouse (more like a children's camp); well, talked with psychopaths; well, ran with them secretly in the basements; well, conflicted with the staff; well, escaped; well, returned; well, cried; well, checked out; so what?
From the good can be distinguished rock music of the late 1960s (which was not enough!) and not the worst directing. A good impression is made by flashbacks, as if layered on the present and connected with it. Alas, this too was very little, and by the end of the film completely exhausted. In general, not a single sensible decision (and they were!) was brought to mind in this film, especially extremely important parallels with the socio-political situation in society, also teetering on the verge of the abyss – and this! And it is not disclosed in large part because a key feature of the departing old system is the mechanism of totalitarian suppression that it involves in relation to incoming novelty. For America, it was Vietnam. This unnecessary war, caused by existential fear of its own development, was the convulsions of a dying system trying to destroy this development both within its own borders (within the United States) and beyond; hence the underlying causes of suicide as an attempt to finally stagnate its own being. So what is the parallel with these processes in the film, which lacks the theme of the repressive repression of psychiatric patients? The freedom and liberality of the established order granted to them does not correlate in any way with what actually happened in society then. That’s why Milos Forman’s picture is a masterpiece: he just managed to brilliantly draw all these parallels, which cannot be said about Mangold’s film, whose efforts can hardly be called successful. The only clever episode, in this respect, is the cruel remark of Lisa in relation to the former patient of the clinic: "You were not discharged - you gave up", thus, the liberal attitude of the medical staff by analogy can be perceived as distancing the state from a rapidly marginalized society.
The film, of course, will go to fans of Winona and Angelina, but very much lacked a stronger and sincere friendship between them. It feels like they never really got to know each other. It would probably be template if they became mistresses (there was only one timid attempt at an erotic kiss and one-sided kiss in the whole film), but even from this stereotype, the film would noticeably benefit, just as it would benefit if one of them died or turned out to be an imaginary friend. In general, it would be a long time to fantasize, “could be” in this film. Perhaps those who think in stereotypes are disappointed, but this is definitely better than thinking in terms of emptiness.
P.S. After this film somehow becomes alarming for possible attempts to film the story of Billy Milligan - it even in the form of a novel is presented, to put it mildly, not perfect. In general, autobiographical films about psychopathology are an extremely complex genre, and not everyone is given to succeed in it. Comparing this tape with something similar, it is safe to say that Ron Howard with "Beautiful Mind" and especially Milos Forman with "Cuckoo's Nest" succeeded in this much more than James Mangold and company. But the latter was still better than Peña Marshall with her "Awakening".
This picture of James Mangold, known for such works as Logan, Ford vs. Ferrari and Cross the Line, tells the story of a girl entangled in the location in the world, whose head is filled with free manifest nonsense of the 60s of the last century, which prevents you from clearly understanding what she wants from her own life.
Winona Ryder interestingly and boldly played the ambiguous main character, whose motivation and actions are so stupid and uncertain that almost perfectly reflect the mood of the youth of that time, who are just preparing for the transition to the newfangled hippie trend.
But still, the most interesting character of this picture is undoubtedly the heroine of Angelina Jolie, who received her first Oscar for her work in the film. The psychopathic girl in her performance attracts all the attention of the audience, and the first appearance is worthy of the highest praise.
However, perhaps the only truly well-disclosed character of the tape is a cute "psychiatric" performed by Brittany Murphy, whose story excites with its frankness and extremely creepy ending. The remaining patients of a specific medical institution received “standing” roles, designed only to externally dilute the inner torment of the weak main character.
Of course, you can compare this tape as much as you like with "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", but the creative power, cultural and social subtext and aerobatics of the entire cast of the legendary film of the 70s more than crush "The Interrupted Life", unable not only to boast of the above characteristics, but even its individual beginning, quite weakly expressed in raising the problems of an individual person in finding his place in this difficult world.
As a result, this picture is remarkable two heroines of the second plan and a good final message: it is necessary, however difficult it may be to find yourself in the circumstances that the surrounding reality offers, and try not to go crazy, just to amuse your inner ego. And life will be easier!
The film shows a typical situation for our time, in which everyone can find themselves. This situation is a loss of life guidelines, a struggle with yourself. The inner experiences of the main character bring her to the point of no return, so she goes to a house where there are souls like her: lost, broken, broken.
This film proves to us that there is no way out. You just have to fight with yourself. The main character found friends in this house, she realized that she was not alone in this world.
The film turned out to be very emotional, reveals many characters, and the main thing is to work on yourself. Internal experiences make the main character ask questions, which she answers at the end of the film. The acting of Wyona Ryder and Angelina Jolie is delightful, very detailed conveyed feelings and emotions of their character.
10 out of 10
James Mangold, who later filmed mediocre ' Knight of the Day' and has already become a cult in the comic genre ' Logan', secured a reliable career start in the nineties, strained and removed to date still his main film - drama ' Interrupted Life' (Girl, Interrupted, 1999), which launched not only his own, but also the career of his two main stars in the central roles.
And, frankly, no matter how many films do not feature psychiatric hospitals and no matter how many times the mental health of the main characters is questioned, and still similar ' Interrupted Life' projects cannot be recalled. An experienced viewer is accustomed to the fact that such medical institutions are usually used to heat up plot passions and create even more tension in a situation in which the central character is, and, as a rule, in horror or some thrillers - and immediately come to mind ' Gothic', ' Forbidden reception' and some '12 monkeys'. But if you carefully look at ' Interrupted Life', which in itself and despite some tough plot twists is still a kind and cheerful film, it becomes clear - its closest relatives are ' Flying Over the Cuckoo's Nest' and ' Mind Games'. The film begins with the placement of the pretty girl in a mental hospital after a failed suicide attempt (and at her own will), where she tries to figure out whether she is sick, before she meets her first and true friends in the hospital. Moreover, smooth installation with sharp transitions between flashbacks, dreams and illusions of the heroine in the real world, which the picture is saturated with in the first half hour, does not leave the feeling that she really has serious problems. And despite the entourage of a classic sixties psychiatric hospital, there is no trace of the expected gloom in the film. To the question of the mother, did the main character find friends here, Susanna answers ' it is not a children's camp', not suspecting how she will later take her heart to the inhabitants of this institution.
And of course, the main character gives the impression of yesterday’s teenager, a skinny short-haired girl, maybe pretty, but the external beauty of Winona Ryder is not particularly visible in this image, but a good acting is noticeable immediately. Especially in a duet with a young Jolie (at the time still at the peak of her attractiveness), who outplays everyone here, rightly taking home the Oscars at the 2000 ceremony. Angelina Jolie, unlike Ryder, even in the image of a crazy bitch does not lose her charm and sexuality, while at the same time bringing to the fore her dramatic talent - her tantrums, tears, smiles, laughter - this is not a done clouding of the psycho portrayed by the actor, but the frank and sincere emotions of a deeper than the rest of the character. Her character has a well-written character, her experiences, fears and dreams, which Jolie broadcasts on the screen. She is an ambiguous character, and let her behave like the last bitch, but it is impossible not to empathize with her, and the viewer involuntarily shares the feelings that the main character feels for her. Sometimes there is even a feeling that the center of attention here is Jolie, and Ryder is just a storyteller, because Angie creates emotions, experiences and movement of the plot. Broken attractive girl, for some reason got into a mental hospital and again and again trying to return to normal life, and in a radical way – making an escape, but again and again returning to the hated hospital. It is impossible not to empathize with her, although it is clear that she is sick, and, nevertheless, the storyline of the main character to a certain extent leaves hope that Angie will be fine. Honored Oscar.
As for the secondary artists, I want to highlight the divine dandelion Whoopi Goldberg in the chic image of a black nurse, Brittany Murphy in the role of another patient, familiar to ' Faculty' Rodriguez Clea DuVall, Jeffrey Tambor and Jared Leto as another familiar face in the frame, although he did not have time to reveal himself in his cameo image.
What the film cannot take away is the atmosphere of kindness and ease, even though there are quite cruel plot twists and tough scenes. Even the conflicts that flare up between the characters (where Jolie acts as an antagonist) negates the sweet and kind ending of the tape. It should also be noted that the entourage of the 60s here is created on conscience, although, given that the main locations of the tape are the premises of a psychiatrist, the authors did not have to bother much. Nevertheless, the American suburb with its old houses, cars (a kind of ' loaf' Volkswagen delivered), people's clothes, even a group of hippies that flashed in history - all this benefited the general temporal entourage of the picture.
' Interrupted Life' that's what everyone will like - this is a strong and life-affirming movie, deserving of acquaintance at least out of interest for what there Jolie Oscar received.
8 out of 10
This tape by many critics and viewers is positioned as a female version of the cult film "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest". And to some extent it is true, but still it should be treated as a self-sufficient work, albeit shot with an eye on famous films of similar subjects. The director of the film, a wonderful and diverse author James Mangold studied at the faculty of cinematography under the classic of world cinema Milosh Forman (director of the film Flying over the Cuckoo's Nest), because of which the director's interest in such topics is understandable. I think if this film were to be released now, its global feminist message would resonate tremendously in this age of feminism. But everything in order.
The film is based on the memoirs of the American writer Susanne Kasen, who described her personal experience of a two-year stay in a psychiatric hospital. In genre terms, this is a heavy life drama with elements of a biographical film. This is a portrait of the 1960s, a time of great upheaval and change for American society. The Vietnam War, political upheaval, the dawn of the hippie movement and the development of a rebellious spirit in young minds. All this is tangentially touched on in this tape, but we see it through the eyes of a simple girl, a child of her era. Suicide attempt and inability to communicate in society, interrupted her life in the normal world and led to a psychiatric institution.
The picture touches on a deep layer of problems, both personal and socio-political. Firstly, it is awareness and search of oneself in the surrounding world, family relations, mutual understanding between parents and children. On the other hand, social problems such as isolation of people with mental illnesses and desertion to avoid military conscription are touched upon. The main meaning can be conveyed through questions: What is the norm of human behavior? Where is the boundary between normal and abnormal people?
We are literally immersed in the depressive atmosphere that reigns in the walls of a psychiatric hospital. This gloomy, depressive environment causes uncomfortable discomfort, the lack of a positive mood does not leave the screen until the very end. This contributes to a kind of visual style, a gray picture with a gloomy color scheme does not give hope for a good future. Of the minuses, I want to note too slow development of events, sagging moments and through a deep departure into psychology.
In the film there are several important characters whose psychological portrait is of interest. Vyona Ryder plays the main role, a girl who lost the line between reality and sleep, which does not allow her to take a place in society. Very subtle acting. However, the tape became a real benefit Angelina Jolie, appeared in the image of an irrepressible sociopath Fox, mad and desperate for various antics. There are other good actresses whose screen images are of interest for deep analysis.
Interrupted life is a complex psychological drama, which on the one hand shows the depressive experience of a person in a psychiatric institution and her attempts to understand the nature of normality in the conventional sense, and on the other hand, a social portrait of American society of the 1960s. Very interesting movie for psychological analysis, but very depressing and gray in the atmosphere. Someone likes it, someone does not, in this case it is only a matter of taste.
7 out of 10
Pictures about psychiatric hospitals could always reveal the hero much deeper, drama is present in each, but there are certain aspects of the main character. Either it's cheerful and absolutely healthy Jack Nicholson ("One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest"), or it's the lost and exhausted Kate Beckinsale ("Abode of the Damned"), or the dreamy Kevin Spacey ("Planet Ka-Pax") - we have here suffering from panic attacks and internal struggle Winona Ryder. The key thing in the picture is that the clinic is only female, where "voluntarily" Ryder is among the patients.
Discovery of the heroine occurs gradually. First, it’s a beast that’s afraid of everyone. Fears take up, why the patient's condition is regarded as negative. Whether leads, or hallucinations, but episodes are interrupted by insertions from the life of the heroine. Until you realize it's flashbacks. They are unprepared, but are able to shed light on the girl before her settlement in the hospital. The plot is not intricate, there are no unexpected moves, but it perfectly sets the line between insanity and a normal lifestyle. What is a normal life? If the whole life is subject to stress, outbursts of anger and misunderstanding (and then condemnation) of others, how to be “normal” in the social sense?
Such thoughts develop the plot. In order to distinguish really psychotic, secondary roles were filled by girls who were completely different in their diseases. But when only the main character gets used to the terrain, she appears - Angelina Jolie! Leader, brain and beam of energy in this kingdom of madmen.
“Oscar” for the best female supporting role, the actress received deservedly. So much emotion and energy that her appearance completely changes the viewing. Of course, Winona Ryder’s little quieter falls under the influence of Jolie. But what happens? The plot constantly changes the positions of “good” and “bad”, attributing a very strange, but at the same time great relationship between the two girls. There are no other people for you anymore. Influence can be different, but the trick is you don't know what's going on. Life outside the clinic is melting more and more, because Ryder did not feel protected there, even the presence of a young man does not save the situation, and here in the mental hospital there were friends. The attraction of the character Jolie goes through all explanations, it is not romance, not lesbian inclinations (this fact is clearly supported), it is admiration and affection.
Seems like you could find the quiet Ryder in Jolie's rebel? Exactly what the heroine gave up freedom for: here she really lives, not hiding behind a mask. To cope with oppression and loneliness, it is not enough to drive away the darkness in the soul, but it is important to find the support of people.
The finale sheds colors on the true face of all the heroines. The film looks easy, gradually introducing new details into the plot, but the delightful Angelina Jolie evokes very pleasant feelings. Emotions, passion, energy are eternal companions of her heroine. Also in the film is the pleasant role of Jared Leto. Marcia's a buffoon.
The title of the film “Girl, Interrupted”, after all, it would be more correct to translate as “The Girl Who Was Interrupted”, from the point of view of the correctness of the translation, because it was often too literal-dry translation in the form of “The Interrupted Girl”. And the film, just shows this very “interrupted” period of the “normal” life of the main character Suzanne, which she voluntarily and forcibly spent in a psychiatric hospital due to the borderline state of the psyche, because she was “prevented” to commit suicide.
The film, based on the autobiographical book by Suzanne Caysen (whose role went to Winona Ryder), unfortunately turned out to be a faded female variation on "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." A decent performance of actresses (especially well-received prestigious awards, including Oscars, Angelina Jolie), but the direction is passive and boring, and plot moves and dialogues are often stupid and naive when claiming hidden meanings. Essentially, the whole film was held by Angelina Jolie’s character – a fire girl, aggressive, eccentric, hopelessly ill, suffering and running away from herself. Perhaps the most interesting character, even, dare I say, sidelined the character of Winona Ryder, who, technically, is in charge here. If in the masterpiece of the writer K. Kesey / director M. Foreman, I mentioned, the ideas and motive of freedom were clear and clear, then in the case of The Girl, it is unclear what the authors wanted to say. The fact that in the American society of the sample of the 60s you need to live like everyone else and not bother? It seems that the main character just hanged out with crazy people and returned to normal people. End of story. By the way, the movie, at one time, did not achieve success, having failed at the American box office, and the reviews of critics were cool - two hours in the dull hospital walls of the women's psychiatric department, after which only Angelina Jolie's performance remains in memory, as one of the early achievements of her acting career - an amateur event.
There can come a time in anyone’s life when it seems as if the whole world is collapsing, and you, losing your temper, do not know how to live before. They say that this is a reason to change something in life, to find a new passion, new acquaintances, new love. However, this is only the appearance, not the gut, because sometimes you need to change something inside yourself. I think this idea is at the heart of the psychological drama "Life Interrupted."
Synopsis America of the late 1960s. While some go to nirvana in Woodstock and others seek death in Vietnam, Suzanne Kaysen, who is in deep depression after a failed suicide attempt, enters a psychiatric clinic. At first believing that she is here by mistake, Suzanne soon finds peace of mind here and with him real friends and helps others to cope with heartache.
I think the film is attractive for its bright and talented cast. First of all, I would like to note the role of Winona Ryder as Suzanne Kasen, a classic representative of the last beatniks of the 1960s, who, under the pressure of the imposed opinion of others, can not find herself in this rapidly changing world. I also liked Angelina Jolie’s role as a patient of Lisa, a daring sociopath who has long died inside herself, and therefore is unable to live a normal life. From secondary roles, I would single out Elizabeth Moss as Polly “Burns”, a kind and cheerful girl who deeply understands that due to her external ugliness, she will never leave this hospital.
Director James Mangold directed a classic psychological drama, the focus of which is the soul throwing of a man who is desperately trying to understand himself. At first, the director paints the main character as a nervous and depressed young girl who believes that something is wrong with her, because she is absolutely not satisfied with the world in which she lives. However, once in the clinic, she sees people who are forced to live with much more terrible problems than herself. I want to say that the director made the film soulful and, so to speak, human, because watching it, you unwittingly observe the experiences that you once faced yourself.
As you know, “Life Interrupted” is based on the autobiographical novel of the same name by the real Suzanne Caysen, describing in it one of the episodes of her life. The plot of the film remotely reminded me, perhaps, of the more famous and significant film “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nests”, which also raises the topic of changes in life. In fact, through the prism of the fate of patients of the clinic, Susanna has to understand what a wonderful life she really has. In the film it is difficult to trace a clear storyline. Rather, it is a confused collection of the most significant memories from her time in the hospital, where Suzanne found peace of mind and true friends, some of whom she even managed to help.
The result "The Interrupted Life" is not a movie for the ordinary viewer. At first, you aim to see something simple, but soon you realize that the film has a deep philosophical meaning, and in order to understand it, you may have to reconsider it again. However, undoubtedly, "Life Interrupted" is a very good and soulful movie, worth watching.
9 out of 10
A film on one of my favorite topics - about the mentally ill and life in a mental hospital - could not leave indifferent. Unfortunately, I did not read the memoirs of the real Suzanne Caysen, from which the film was made, but I liked the plot. The name can be interpreted in two ways: in the English version, it sounds like “The Girl Who Was Interrupted” and may reflect that Suzanne was prevented from committing a suicide attempt. In the Russian version, the name is translated as “interrupted life” and then we can conclude that this is a period of time, a year that seemed to be cut out of the life of a young writer, placing her in a clinic.
Suzanne is a very complex character. It is quite unclear what she wants out of life, and it is very easy to get entangled in the chaos and maze of her thoughts and feelings. I think she’s just a very insecure person who can’t figure out what she really wants. And this is not a vice, because finding your place in life is very difficult. I think it was only towards the end of the film, after some dramatic situations, that Suzanne redefined her life and began to appreciate it.
The character of the Fox is also difficult. This is a completely unpredictable person. I believe there is a vulnerable soul behind the aggressive protective shell, but she is no doubt a very vivid character. Unlike Suzanne and many other patients, Lisa is not going to commit suicide. She struggles to be free, but is in the cage of her own emotions and thoughts, which have kept her in a madhouse for 8 years, and because of which, making escapes, she returns again and again.
It is a pity for Polly, who set herself on fire as a child so that she could be allergic and leave the puppy. Polly is cute and cheerful, but she also has tantrums, one of which the viewer witnesses. This moment I consider very strong: when Polly at night, during a tantrum, locked in the detention center, Susanna and Lisa, breaking into the break room, take musical instruments, sit under the door and begin to play and sing a very positive and cheerful old song, which for some reason made me sad. Staff furious and I furious: after 'music therapy' Polly got better and better, and the medical staff punishes the girls - for what? For breaking the rules. But they just wanted to help...
The cast of Interrupted Life is great, it’s just a whole constellation of celebrities: quiet and humble Winona Ryder, charismatic Whoopi Goldberg, bright and strong Angelina Jolie. Each actress brilliantly coped with his role.
Suzanne says that she spent a year of her life in a mental hospital, but I believe that this time is a time of self-reflection, a kind of stop on the path of life to breathe freely, to think about your life and – to move on. Nothing happens by accident, and if fate wanted you to be left in a mental hospital to comprehend your existence - then it was necessary.
Is it worth considering girls who are being treated in such a special institution as their friends? Yeah. I believe that even though they are mentally ill, this does not prevent them from feeling and experiencing like ordinary people. They are not alien to compassion and mutual help. Therefore, you should not put a stigma like “don’t mess with crazy people” – you just need to try to understand them, after all, normal people are also far from perfect.
The film is about the revaluation of values, the search for the meaning of life, wandering in the darkness of other people's souls, and yet - about friendship, albeit sometimes not quite ordinary.
8 out of 10
To understand your problem, to understand it, to express it out loud is one of the most important discoveries in human life. What interferes with peace and happiness, which has always been on the surface but has always been inaccessible, is a simple truth to come a long way. This film clearly shows what power over a person can have the truth about him. Cruel, destroying and at the same time healing, taking to a new level.
Interrupted Life is worth watching only for the thoughtful look of Winona Ryder and the bright play of Angelina Jolie. Here the themes of the concept of “normality”, correspondence to the expectation of the majority, rebellion, personal freedom and individuality are revealed. There is everything here to ensure that the picture remains memorable and gets into the personal collection of classic cinema for everyone.
The film is based on 3 pillars: the pain of lack of love, the pain of loneliness, the pain of wrong decisions.
In my opinion, this is a film about pain, about unbreakable, quiet and skin-cutting pain. Sometimes it’s hard to explain how you feel, so you look for an excuse for everything around you and everything you’ve done wrong. That is why you need to drink a pack of aspirin with vodka, because you need aspirin so that your head does not hurt.
I read negative reviews. The young man writes, “This film is not about mentally ill women, but about single women.” The question is, “Who are most people going to be crazy?” The answer: lonely people. Loneliness and haunted the main character Suzanne, who could not share what she feels. And feelings in a person abound, and in my opinion, all her feelings changed to self-hatred because she could not share what was on her soul with other people. Suzanne does not know what to do, how to live, how to love, what will happen next.
In a mental hospital, she meets all the human vices that are hidden behind people's faces and that each of us hides, so that God forbid someone thinks that we are sick with something. We need to be healthy, like robots. Born, educated, married, 40 years of work and hello to death. And your life is not interrupted, there is no time to think, “Maybe I did something wrong?” Am I wrong? You may not have that time, and Susanna had it, and this year she at least understood who she is, and this “interrupted” life has become a new life for her. Close your eyes and think, “Who are you?”
I’ve never been cheerful. [...] I just wanted to stop the headache.
Today I watched one of the masterpieces of cinema – “The Interrupted Life”. Of course, it contains a lot of deep meanings, but one of the most important and close to me is the courage and strength of character of the main character, Suzanne. She dared to recover and return to this world, to our crazy, scary, unpredictable, real world. And this is, oh, how difficult, especially if you spend your whole conscious life in an illusory, fantasy world. Not everyone does that. Although no, it would be more correct to say that not everyone dares to face the truth and break this vicious circle. After all, it is much easier to be a victim of diagnosis, circumstances, childhood injuries or to come up with any other excuses, just so as not to take responsibility for your life. Live by inertia in the usual conditions of a psychiatric clinic.
In contrast to the main character, no less vivid image of the Fox. At first glance, she has a rebellious character and unsuppressed authority, but on closer acquaintance it becomes clear that she has long come to terms with her diagnosis, lifestyle, treatment methods in the clinic and her whole life is on a rolled-up track for 8 years in a row.
The movie is a revelation. The film allows you to look inside yourself. The film is the truth of life. A film that fascinated me not only with history, but also with a beautiful acting.
10 out of 10
You can't tell what this movie is about, "Girl." Interrupted. Even its name is ambiguous. For the Russian viewer, the version of the translation “The Interrupted Life” is more familiar, but there is also such an option – “The Girl Who Was Interrupted”. As they say, understand what you want. Choose the one you want to understand.
The ambiguity lies not only in the interpretation of the title, but also in the film itself. What is it? A hospital full of violent and more or less calm psychopaths? About a girl who can't get out of a lingering depression? That no matter how difficult the situation you find yourself in, you can always find a way out? Balancing on the edge of life and death? About friendship and love? Yes, you will find all this in this picture. But even that's not all. This is a film about the importance of not losing yourself and preserving your identity.
You may ask, what kind of person can a mentally ill person have? You know, sometimes someone who is considered insane turns out to be a real genius, and his spiritual qualities can sometimes be much higher than those of someone who is considered adequate. Remember only this episode, when Suzanne in the cafe comes a friend and begins to maliciously pour on her torrents of dirt. At that time, the girl had already lived in the hospital for a long time, and the other patients knew about her situation. They began to bark at the scandal, thereby protecting Susanna. It’s hard to say who’s crazy in this situation. But I am sure of one thing - to reproach a person with a mental disorder and to express to him any complaints - not very smart.
I can’t ignore the brilliant acting. I believed Angelina Jolie, believed Winona Ryder, Brittany Murphy, Elizabeth Moss, believed that they were in a psychiatric hospital for a reason.
The film left a strange impression on me and made me think. If you are ready to test your adequacy, go ahead! Have a good time.
While her peers enter universities and make plans for the future, Suzanne Kaysen decides to drink a dozen aspirin tablets with a bottle of vodka and gets into a psychiatric hospital, where instead of studying science she becomes an object of study. In this closed world, where there are no quicksands and pitfalls of serious and such a boring “real” life, and people are only insects of dubious interest, which are looked through a magnifying glass by curious doctors, a miniature girl with the eyes of a frightened deer suddenly realizes that false indifference will not bring her to the light.
Yes, perhaps, this is the main idea of James Mangold’s Interrupted Life – indifference will never point the way in this strange real world and will not allow you to get out of the abyss of nurtured doubts. Claymore Psychiatric Hospital becomes the setting for another story about an attempted rebellion, not against the system, but against life itself with all its fears and contradictions. Artificial attachments in the middle of enclosed spaces, lonely souls drawn to each other more from despair than from the desire to be friends - all this looks so unnatural and contrived, but at the same time attractive in its strange harmony. The “abnormal” here traditionally turn out to be in something more normal and reasonable than those who do not need to live in the white walls of the hospital, and time after time go through the same nightmare of similar faces and seemingly never changing days. However, such a universality of the plot canvas does not play into the hands of the film, a priori requiring the presence of intense internal conflict, obliged to push the action and repeatedly bring it to a new emotional level.
Microbranes and small joys for a long time coexist in independent units, animate a small world, but do not demonstrate interconnections, do not become a single mechanism. Mangold's film in many ways looks like a reflection of the worldview of its main character - sluggish and apathetic, with an unclear and pretentious exacerbation of plot-forming collisions. Rebellion without an ideal, rebelliousness without chances, rebelliousness doomed, and therefore the most desirable and attractive of all rebellions here is deprived of its spontaneity, lost in the fragmentary threads of the narrative. The episodic character of the action turns out to be similar to the notes of Suzanne, whose hand diligently translates words, pressuring restless thoughts on paper so that they do not overflow, do not force them to escape from reality and cause themselves physical pain in order to suppress mental anguish. However, such an artistic technique, as if once again reminding of the biographical nature of the story, only knocks Interrupted Life off the tempo gained at times, thereby bringing to the fore the main characters, whose images and behavior are much more curious than the film itself as a whole.
Of particular interest here are two characters - nominally the main character Suzanne (Wynonna Ryder) and met her in Claymore crazy Fox (Angelina Jolie). The heroine of Jolie is an ordinary lost soul, struggling to find freedom, but not realizing what it takes to succumb to madness or overcome it. It seems that nothing interesting, but the tearful play of the actress, blonde strands of the coveted statuette, literally tears the Fox out of the drowsy world of films, pushes slowly floating in psychopathic formalin figures and just brings life to this realm of torn dolls. But while the goddess Jolie frees the second plans, on the front line, the fragile Ryder hides behind her brilliant eyes the melancholy of inner detachment and lack of firmness of spirit. Her character is ambivalent (and this word is repeated more than once in the course of the action), almost entirely consists of continuous innuendoes and contradictions.
Far-fetched aggressive behavior, expressed in sluggish arguments with an unchanged cigarette, slowly dying in the hand during the next tirade or flashback, is replaced by indifferent contemplation of the movements occurring around the body. In a sense, Suzanne is a near-perfect portrait of a Prozac Nation who finds it easier to interrupt his own life than to try to grow and evolve in any direction. The girl is somehow secretly impulsive, inclined to make sudden decisions in the midst of a thoughtful emptiness, and her viciousness seeks to hide from the audience behind the veil of timidity before the “big” world. It is not clear whether Suzanne was really mentally ill, or just suffered from her own laziness and narcissism, but it does not matter. "The Interrupted Life" is too weak in dramatic terms and, without having a sufficiently strong plot conflict behind it, prefers to retire towards a bisexual melodrama with an atrophied romantic component, held exclusively on the screen interaction of Ryder and Jolie. And even though Mangold's film sags markedly in terms of plot, the tandem of two actresses with a gusty whirlwind of growing emotional collapse still manages to pull "The Interrupted Life" to the level of a really good movie, which clearly demonstrates the importance of empathy in communication between people.
... Two pairs of eyes look at each other through a lattice window in the door separating them. Girls see all the hidden corners of their souls, they seem naked and the mime of their actions now speaks much more eloquently than the words spoken. The uncontrollability of time forces you to pay for the mistakes made, and the senseless flight in its despair in search of its sunny Florida turns out to be just another turn in the wheel of suffering. In the end, it's so simple - to slash the razor through the veins and forever say goodbye to all phobias, complexes, oblique views ... But at the same time, it’s so hard to interrupt your own life once and for all, watching it flow out of you, tinted with the blood-red color of frustrated satisfaction. Finally. It's finally over.
“They ask me: how did you get there? They really want to know if this can happen to them. I cannot answer this hidden question. I can only say one thing: it is not difficult.
The first question that arises after viewing - and what was Suzanne Caysen sick, who underwent voluntary treatment? More specifically, was she even sick? The observant nurse noticed that she was just an unstable, selfish and spoiled girl.
In the beginning, this is exactly the impression it makes. Looks pretty good. A little dreamy, clearly prone to depression and melancholy. And amazingly impenetrable. Or rather, it seems to feel something, but somehow not really. With parents - no special intimacy, with a mustache boyfriend - too. It is as if she knows human feelings insofar as she knows them.
And only then, gradually, getting acquainted with the motley inhabitants of the mental hospital, in which she was carefully confined after a suicide attempt (though for Suzanne it was an attempt to escape from pain, but I think she just perfectly understood what she was going to, only was in captivity of beautiful illusions that death is beautiful, and in general avoidance of all problems), she seems to thaw and acquire a human appearance. With a bright Lisa - not the main leader of patients, unbalanced, sociopathic, tough, but straightforward and honest (this heroine Jolie bribes). The liar Georgina. With half-witted Daisy - the only one who really gives the impression of madness, and then confirms it with his final act. With Polly the Burner who set her face on fire. Perhaps, the acquaintance with these people and the world in which they live, and became for Suzanne a necessary shake-up, forced her to get out of her shell, to feel not only her own experiences, but also strangers. And the encounter with a real death helped to understand that life is worth fighting for, and not for the one led by the inhabitants of the mental hospital.
If we consider Suzanne’s coldness and lack of emotion, her indifference and indifference to life as a disease, then yes, she was really sick. And in this case, “voluntary treatment” went only to her benefit.
However, being the main character, Suzanne, however, is not the brightest character. Lisa and Daisy are sitting on the palm tree. The first is due to the bright image: a daring, reckless, brazen, walking along the corridors of a mental hospital with the appearance of a rooster in a chicken coop. Apparently, it can exist only in the hospital walls, because outside of them, Lisa is a rather pathetic sight. The second is due to the fact that she has obvious problems with the psyche, here you will not get away with frank heart-to-heart conversations with a specialist. One can argue for a long time whether Lisa’s cruel words really caused her final act, or whether she was just looking for an excuse. She did not look healthy, even after leaving the hospital, and the first phrase about Valium, which she met friends, does not add points. Therefore, here rather lean to the conclusion that the words of Lisa became a kind of catalyst, but not the root cause, and such a finale, although sad, but, unfortunately, natural.
The mental hospital itself is a separate subject for analysis. A kind of imitation of the real world, only with modified laws and orders. The average person often has a stereotypical opinion about a mental hospital - they say that there are all violent Napoleons-maniacs-schizophrenic. Here the mental hospital is quite peaceful, often more like a female boarding school: patients lock themselves, go outside the hospital, without any problems arrange entertainment like bowling, can, if desired, scour the doctor's office. As in the real world, they find friends (Lisa, who was friends with Jamie and now sees her in Suzanne), fall in love (a nurse who breathes unevenly for Suzanne, sometimes even touching), lose loved ones and just try to live a relatively normal life. And for someone, this is the only possible life (for example, for Lisa).
The human psyche is fragile, and mental illness is one of the worst nightmares. Some of these girls have a chance to recover and live a completely different life, while others are doomed to exist in a vicious circle.
In psychology, there is such a practice, a kind of art therapy. When the patient is asked to depict an object that does not exist in a visual format. We'll say pain, fear or love. When my psychologist suggested that I draw something that could cause me the most vivid negative emotions, some variation of hell, I drew a piece of room with a bed. When he asked me what it was, I replied that it was the ward in the psychiatric clinic where I would definitely end up and spend the rest of my life if I couldn’t get out of this shit anytime soon. From that day forward, my personal variation of hell will always be the image of a barred chamber. Cells of external, local, limited space multiplied by a cell of their own madness. Double trap. Never get out.
Suzanne. Susie. My little girl. My gloomy little angel. Lost, spit out by society element. My misunderstood, dear, pale-skinned child. With black disheveled hair. The slanted bridges of the collarbone. With an eternally frightened look, eternally running pupils, framed by lavender halftones of circles under the eyes. It's like two little universes. Your thinness is so beautiful. Like you are the death you have been waiting for.
Susie. She had 30 aspirin pills. Susie. You just had a headache. From this life, from this world, from yourself. 30 aspirin and vodka. Mix, but not shake. The best cocktail to change your life. With a similar purpose, people buy a ticket for a roller coaster - so that after the fall and black, impenetrable tunnels there was a clearing and takeoff. Your roller coaster was a surprise. Unplanned re-start.
Those who are unlucky to die get here, Susie. There are many like you. Their semi-existent bodies walk, irritating with their outlines, the perfect white walls of identical rooms. It would seem that everyone here is so different. But in fact, everything here is just copies of each other. The same stories, the same reasons, the same screams in the night, tears in the day. They're gonna tell you, Susie. All my lives. And it's like you're going to listen to your own story, frame by frame. Just different voices. Dozens of versions of you. They only need you to listen to their verbal pain. Which one day, outside of those rooms, nobody needed. Double trap. The trap slammed shut.
If you get scared, you can be saved. As long as you’re scared, as long as you don’t accept it, as long as you want to change something, you’re still alive. As long as you believe that there is another reality behind white walls and you have a chance to return to it, you are alive.
Fox. My girl. Canned revolution. Apocalypse in miniature. A vein riot. A fox tearing up the belly of reality. Changing reality into fiction. Throwing a hammer cocktail into society. Fox. A broken thermometer with mercury. Not glued, not fixed. Inertia-poisoning environment. The fox that's already dead. Who has nothing to lose. Which cannot escape from the trap of white rooms, beds with ropes, bars on windows, absolute control. A fox laughing in everyone's face. A fox scooping money out of a corpse's pocket. The not giving up fox who actually gave up a long time ago. Dead. It doesn't exist.
Despite the presence of prototypes of each of the heroines, due to the biographical nature of the filmed novel, symbolically they are all parts (stages) of one person (one disease). And if you look closely, then naive, misunderstood, lonely, but still alive, ready to fight and having a reserve for this, Suzy is point A, and the seemingly riotous, unprincipled, hysterical, almost dead, but in fact just resigned to the sentence “sick”, Lisa is point B. And the main blow under the breath of the picture is the comprehension of what gap you find yourself in. And watching Life Interrupted, so that the impact is appropriate, so that the idea crunches over and over over the old scars of the soul, is necessary, of course, if you feel that you are between these coordinate points and approaching point B. Watch to turn around in time. To have time to interrupt such a life.
The tape throws light only on some parts of the semantic polygon presented in the novel. In which more interest is directed towards misogynistic aspects of American society of the 60s, feminism and gender discrimination. However, James Mangold ignores these topics. The American pop manner of presenting the material is presented in the best traditions - the viewer is left without intrigue at the very beginning, white is white, black is black, twice two is four, dead loops of the mind to nothing, halftones and shades are stupidity and the lot of outsiders, they, in his opinion, are apparently not needed by a normal viewer. Mangold not only reveals the cards in the first minutes, he plays with shirts of cards to himself, without interrupting the game, without a shadow of a doubt. In the first frames, the roles are placed, not to be turned away.
But if we abstract from the fact that the novel itself is very mediocre, the film also does not disdain the highly conceptual semantic load, which, in fact, you have to invent yourself, then you can see the budget 25th frame of your own consciousness, how the object goes from point A to point B, and on the way chooses life.
A good good good film, with a strong script and a very outstanding acting game, raises these topics well. Whether - everyone decides for themselves. That is why I love the subject of psychology and psychiatry. And for actors, and in this case, actresses – this topic is also a gold mine – because there is something to play.
In the center of the plot is the path of the main character, played by Winona Ryder and her relationship with a very colorful heroine Angelina Jolie. That relationship, because it is very difficult to say that between them - friendship, rivalry, cooperation, trust, enmity - than the film, certainly catching. I’ll make a very risky comparison, but it reminds me a little bit of the connection between Edward Norton and Brad Pitt in Fight Club. And the types, adjusted for the floor, also seem similar to me. And most importantly, in moments of conflict, do you really wonder which side are you on? The most vividly shown here are the features of a person’s choice, when there is an opinion of the hospital (authorities) and the individual. And the concept of “truth”, of course, everyone has his own. We do not forget that everything happens in not the easiest period of American history - the 60s.
Wynonna Ryder At first, it seems to us that we will simply reflect the reality of the hospital and morals that were in the 60s on its behalf. But no, she has a very deep character, with her worldview and, most importantly, development, because by the end of the film, we will see a completely different person than we saw in the first minutes. It is strange that at least she was not nominated for an Oscar, because she played well and conveyed the entire palette of emotions of her heroine.
Angelina Jolie. What can I say here is a well-deserved reward. A bright charismatic character, very vividly realized. Opinion about her also changes with the timing of the picture. She does not have a choice - she made it a long time ago, she does not harbor pitfalls in herself and at the same time - well destroys stereotypes about sociopaths, appearing as a sane and sometimes even a calculating person.
What's also exciting about the film is that there are heroes and villains at each stage, and it really makes you think. But everyone can get into a mental hospital, just as, let’s not forget that it was in the 60s and what can now give a journalistic / writer’s award – in those days was punished by visiting such places. So, so far, the concept of normality is very conditional, what can we say about the past, especially from the perspective of mental illness.
The idea of the people who made this film was to show the rift in the human soul, that is, its interruption and subsequent renewal. Rebirth, so to speak. It's like two times two.
The main character named Suzanne is a selfish and lazy girl who after a failed suicide attempt ends up in a psychiatric hospital. This is the interruption of life. In the hospital, she meets either the same selfish people or people who are really unable to live in society (for example, Fox and Polly). After some time, her spiritual renewal begins, when she realizes that she is still quite herself an adequate person, and she needs to be not here at all, but on the other side of the fence. And at the end he makes a very philosophical conclusion in the style of Coelho.
That's the whole movie. As I said, everything is clear and clear. But somehow unconvincing. It is hard to believe that Suzanne has become a different person. I can hardly believe that she realized her mistakes. After all, infantilism in her actions was, and remained, so that she did not talk or think there. What is this rebirth?
I once heard such an opinion that “Life Interrupted” is a female version of the film “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”. Bullshit. After all, this film is just an average drama, with a claim to a deep philosophy.
I found this movie on Jolie’s profile and honestly, I just wanted to see a movie with her. But later, because of Winona, I watched this movie again... and 3 more movies with her.
I would not agree with those who write that Jolie as a supporting actress in this film surpassed Winona. I'll explain why. Playing an arrogant, straight-forward girl who can unabashedly pour out the truth about you, looking straight into the eyes, is not as difficult as it seems. And to play a girl quiet, but not simple, so to speak, on my mind and express complex emotions with one glance, what Winona did here I understand the work and talent.
The main actress is a girl who is desperate and did not find interest in her studies and among her peers. She loved writing things that no one took seriously. No, she’s not one of those who is not happy with everyone and yelling “I’m not like everyone else” is just a girl who had her own interests and she is not interested in the opinions of others. As a result of all the stresses and problems, she received a nervous breakdown and ended up in a mental hospital. And then, importantly, she did not go crazy, as happens with many normal people who end up with crazy people.
Most importantly, this girl had a solid image, a character that did not change throughout the film. This film turned out to be very believable. I try not to spoil the film on this superficially touched the film, although in theory it should be disassembled by bits, each frame.
I suggest you look.
I think many people, when they say "psychiatric hospital" #34, have terrible ideas about the schizophrenics and mental patients who are there. But this movie doesn’t fit that stereotype. There are many images (a pathological liar, a girl with a burnt face, mentally ill, and so on), many of their heroes live constantly in a hospital, and discharge those who are either “cured” or already hopeless.
A strong, kind, very soulful film that says that you don’t have to connect life only with ideas about something nice and good, there’s another side of it, but where there are people like you, only slightly different from us. The characters of the film just need a little warmth and care, they are like little children, especially in the scene of going to the ice cream cafe.
Acting game Wyona Ryder, which played the role of the main character Susan, really believe, so sensual and heartfelt everything is produced on the screen. Angelina Jolie certainly goes to play such pathetic and insensitive bitches as the Fox, who are open, they are not afraid to say everything to the face, but at heart they are very vulnerable, dreaming of a better life girls. And her comments and remarks settle in your head for a long time and make you think.
A delightful soundtrack. The music is very suitable. It is associated with the events that occur on the screen.
The film looks easy, time flies by instantly, despite all its complexity, the presence of bright and memorable characters.
It's a different world where everything that happens behind the fence seems crazy, unnecessary, abnormal. But it is possible to live in this mental hospital world, as Susan Keynes proved.
The movie went through my sick nerve. The theme of a lonely soul in an alien world, a finished symphony of life falling out of order, in which there is no creativity, no open questions, everyone around you knows what is what, they do not need your opinion. You're in the middle of a misunderstanding. But maybe you should look back and, squeamishly, touch someone else's pain, try to sing someone else's loneliness, and the door will open. It will not be easy, you may have to turn inside out, rudely touch the patient through negligence, but you will not enter this world in another way. It is easy to escape from reality. Safe and secure. Everything is simple and simple in this film.
What do we see? Primary, and as the heroine herself put it, an ignorant, stupid society in which there is no place for sensitive, rich souls with a rich inner world, whom lies hurt more than the truth. It is necessary to find weapons that can protect against insensitive faces. But for a number of reasons, it becomes easier to give up life. How many people are marginalized and addicted to alcoholism, drug addiction, because it is unbearable when they lie, when they ignore their thoughts, feelings to please Moloch social stereotypes and do not accept the truth from you, do not hear and do not want to hear. They don't. They don't. They don't. Not looking. They adapt to the system and function. Words are worthless. And people, though not at odds with themselves, are crazy.
Psychiatry is an alternative where you have a different attitude and view of you as a patient. You're under supervision. People worry about you. Of course, this is not heaven (in reality, I don’t know for sure, it may be hell), but a change of scenery, the ability to idle, which is extremely necessary to put the soul in order. I think that disliked people who lose ground under their feet, some kind of conviction, who can no longer function, exist without feeding healthy relationships, fall into the mental hospital.
I was very pleased with the respect given to the word in the film, as I attach great importance to the ability to express myself through words. After all, this is so: the more you talk about what excites you and occupies you, without being shy in expressions, without clamping yourself with the fear of offending, harming, the easier it is, the more chances to get rid of the vicious circle of obsessions. Being a writer is very cool, the main thing that is necessary for this is to feel the relevance of your plan (what to write about and for what?). Peter Orban, a German astrologer-psychotherapist, writes in his book Diagnostics of the Soul in a Horoscope. From self-knowledge to healing.":"...the real help exists only through the word!"
A word about heroines and actresses: I want to object to those who believe that the bright, rampant Jolie overlaps the main character, played by the charming Ryder. Not at all. They are as different as the opposites that lack each other. Antipodes of female mythological images. If I had taken it five years earlier, I would have admired Jolie's character, too, because it's cool, much cooler, knocks her down with her leadership maneuvers and expression, which here as here and there you can not turn away. From such people, to be honest, you get tired, they require a lot of attention to themselves. But without them, it is as if there is not enough salt. Susan is so touching, refined, sweet and at the same time wayward, cheerful (not a mattress), of course, more feminine, more disposed and evokes empathy.
The main idea of the film is undoubtedly about the need to maintain selfless, friendly ties. For a person living in society, it is as necessary as air. Susann didn't run off with the young man because she'd already found something valuable in that asylum. If you know how to be friends, then you are not crazy, you have not lost everything. And people who do their duty are as handy in their place as the kind and intelligent staff of this clinic. It is different, examples of which are given in some films. But this film tries to notice that there are more kind and honest people in this world, at least there are, and therefore this world is beautiful, worthy of your attention. How fresh and clean the landscape from the rear window of the car in the final frames of the film!
P.S. Only a pure heart, not indifferent, will tell you when, to whom and what words to say!
“Where is the line you have to cross to be considered crazy?”
To compare this film with Milos Forman's "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" would be foolish. After all, these are two perfect antipodes. Probably, this is the very “juice” of this picture, because the very first is that the female department is shown here. And the main characters themselves? And secondary: sick, healthy, doctors? It's the exact opposite! If you’ve seen these two movies, you’ll know what I mean. If you have not seen one, you have lost a lot. These pictures are about life and probably about each of us.
I once thought for a long time about mental disorders, putting everything in its place. After all, one would think that all creative personalities, outstanding artists, musicians, writers, directors – all were in their own way “moved”. Thanks to such people, we enjoy different kinds of art. Many times I have heard about the fact that people who were once in a psychiatric clinic, can not return to their former lives, they become really sick. Maybe these clinics just “squeeze” all these disorders out of people? I wasn't there, I can't judge. But watch this movie and you will understand a lot. Remember only the last phrase from the film, which says Susannah:
Being crazy doesn’t mean being at odds with yourself or hiding a dark story. This can be me or you, if you look at us through a magnifying glass, if you lied and liked it, if you dreamed of being a child forever.
The actors in the film played very well. It would not be surprising if I, like many others, single out Wynonna Ryder and Angelina Jolie. It was a beautiful performance, for Jolie it is one of the best works, and for Winona Ryder, in my opinion, the most diverse, emotional and lively role. I think even her best role! Supporting actors perfectly complemented the whole picture, especially Brittany Murphy, because I always thought it was crazy when I saw it on the screen.
To sum up, such a movie could not go unnoticed by me, because I love this atmosphere in films. “Life Interrupted” is the true story of a girl named Susanna Caysen. To convey emotions about this picture is simply impossible. It is quite impressive, and there is no point in writing about it. If you are interested in this movie after this review, then you will watch it and draw a conclusion. And my verdict...
For me, James Mangold's film ' Life Interrupted' became a confession. I so identified with Winona Ryder that my emotions sometimes exceeded her. Her revelations were my revelations, and the sensation after the film was comparable to a trance or post-medetation state. For me, the film ' Life Interrupted' became iconic because I had romanticized and developed my own diagnosis, but the film really changed my perspective on my inherent rituals and qualities. The main character convincingly demonstrated that ' there is a trait. Deciding that it does not exist is a mistake & #39; In short, the film became the most effective group therapy session for me.
And now about merit not to me, but to the world and cinema. The most attractive thing I saw in the film was a change in the genre of love story. Yes, yes, I think this is where the film was made. A change in genre is appreciated by the audience, especially if it is justified by a change in perception in the world. The film ' Chinatown' became popular largely due to the transformation of the detective genre. In it, the detective does not catch and punish the criminal, and the rich and politically powerful criminal escapes. The film's director, Roman Polanski, changed the genre's convention by showing that rich people can commit murder and go unpunished, which was common in the 1970s. The director of the film ' Life Interrupted' like Roman Polanski, very subtly felt the pulse of the story and felt the correct diagnosis, which I would call a love of deviation.
Since pre-Flood times, mankind has noticed a tendency to change perception, and exponentially. For example, in the 1950s, films that showed betrayal elicited sympathy from viewers, while the 1980s audience did not. Most changes in perception have made our lives more perfect. During the Renaissance, man became intelligent enough to renounce God. This change in perception allowed the development of science and culture, made a person self-sufficient and purposeful. Michelangelo was one of the first to immortalize his name on an architectural monument ("Pieta"). Everyone knew his name because of his changed perception.
Thus, humanity, having noticed the tendency to change perception and its effectiveness, wanted to do it by its own efforts. It all started with a change in consciousness. Spleen, depression, manic state were cultivated. Then this wave was picked up by poets, prose writers, directors, musicians and romanticized the image of a mentally ill person. Romanticization and love feelings are related, so it is likely that a person will fall in love with his own deviant behavior, because, firstly, it is a consequence of a change in perception, which is effective, secondly, it is justified and romanticized by creative personalities, thirdly, inaction is less painful than opposition, fourthly, in the long term, dependence on any deviation is possible, fifthly, it is fashionable and appreciated. It is hoped that this malignant seed will not germinate and will exist only in films.