hilltopics
Tuesday, January 18, 2000
entertainment health
Ryder, Jolie take stigma out of mental illness in Girl
It's the late 1960s. American society is in turmoil about social injustice and the increasingly unpopular conflict in Vietnam. The new generation of Americans John F. Kennedy referred to in his presidential inauguration reeks of anxiety.
So what's a girl, disenchanted with it all, to do?
Girl, Interrupted, is based on the true story of Susanna Kaysen (Winona Ryder) and her 18-month stay in a mental hospital at a time when American society was just beginning to feel the effects of a cultural shift. Ryder looks the part of an anti-social girl, and she's great at acting within a wide range of emotion.
It's easy to see that Susanna is not comfortable, even in her own skin. Just when the women's liberation movement was opening doors to more rights and better education, she is the only girl in her class to forego college. She endures her socialite parents' parties with a profound and apparent dread. And, most alarmingly, she becomes more and more enchanted with the idea of killing herself.
After downing a bottle of aspirin and chasing it with a bottle of vodka, her parents ship her off to Claymoore, a private minimum-security mental hospital. The staff psychiatrist diagnoses her with borderline personality disorder — a term that basically means she's too anti-social and engages in destructive behavior, like promiscuous sex.
At Claymoore, she quickly becomes friends with a sociopath, Lisa — masterfully portrayed by Angelina Jolie. Much like Jack Nicholson's R.P. McMurphy in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Lisa, the ringmaster of the mental ward, is openly defiant to the staff. But unlike McMurphy, Lisa is a negative reinforcement to her peers — verbally abusing them to keep them in their shells rather than help them develop.
And it doesn't take long for Susanna to start mimicking Lisa's destructive behavior. She resists help from the staff and the much-needed advice from Valerie (Whoopi Goldberg), the admirable tough-loving head nurse and mother figure for the ward. She
Writing: C+
Acting: A+
Cinematography: B-
Sound: B
Overall: B+
Running time: 2 hrs. 4 min.
Starring: Winona Ryder, Angelina
Jolie, Whoopi Goldberg
stops taking her required medication and decides the only way to prove she really is sane is to escape.
But after Lisa pushes one of their fellow patients too far, she changes from Susanna's friend to her foil. That's when Susanna finally decides to accept the help her doctors have been trying so hard to get her to embrace.
The wonderful supporting cast
deserves a nod, too. Much like the colorful ward members in *Cuckoo's Nest*, these characters show that illness of the mind can't eclipse the love in one's heart. Particularly notable are Polly (Elisabeth Moss), incredibly kind but rejected for her fire-scarred face, and Georgina (Clea DuVall), a *Wizard Of Oz*-loving pathological liar.
Packed with top-notch acting, the movie has some serious flaws. Subplots involving Susanna's relationship with a pacifist draft-dodger (Jared Leto) and one of her parent's middle-aged friends are underdeveloped, weak and tedious at best. At a length of two hours, the storytelling would have much more impact without these unnecessary vignettes.
Susanna's story certainly can find credence in our own Prozac-buoyed society. Mental illness was portrayed as humorous but repulsive in Cuckoo's Nest. Here, it's a serious matter, and it's a topic handled with dignity by each of the actors. Combined with strong and emotionally evocative acting, Girl, Interrupted is one worth seeing.
Washington's a knockout in The Hurricane
By Clare McLellan Kansas movie critic
Kansan movie critic
From start to finish, as the title suggests,
The Hurricane will blow you away.
Either way, this true story of African-American, former middleweight boxer Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, demonstrates two sides of humanity — both so real and gutwrenching it will make you want to cry.
As I left the theater, I couldn't decide which reason to cry. Do I cry for the horrible injustice done to a man of amazing character or shed tears of joy for the beauty of humanity that pulled together to finally turn the injustice around?
Denzel Washington portrays Carter from an 18-year-old boy escaping a juvenile penitentiary to a 50-year-old man who has suffered injustices unfathomable to most. He is wrongly accused and sent to jail twice in his life, mainly because of the highly racist atmosphere of the 50s and 60s and a cop who carries a lifelong grudge against him.
During the years between his prison stints, Carter fights his way to huge success as a boxer, marries and begins to live the life he's wanted. This is all shattered when he and another young African-American man are accused of a triple murder and sentenced to life in prison.
At the center of this story is Carter's strength. When imprisoned as a young man he was determined to become so strong in mind and body that he could not be defeated. When sentenced to life, he decides he will not wear the clothes of a guilty man, both finura-
tively and literally. He works his way around prison rules and prison life while working tirelessly on overturning his case and writing a book about his life.
A young African American man named Lesra (Vicel-
Writing: A-
Acting: A
Cinematography: B+
Sound: B
Overall: A
Running time: 2 hrs. 5 min.
Starring: Denzel Washington,
Tion, Liev Schreiber, Vicilous
Reon Shannon
lous Reon Shannon), living in Canada with three adults who have taken him into their care, reads Carter's book and is inspired. So much so he writes Carter a letter — the beginning of a lifelong friendship. We see the story of Carter's life unfold as Lesra reads his book, flashing scenes of his own life in between.
What results is a fine film.
The supporting players are equally well cast. In the hands of bigger stars, these parts could have been overdone or taken on more prominence than they should. Liev Schreiber, John Hannah and Deborah Kara Unger, who play Lesra's caretakers, deliver strong performances.
Carter's triumph over injustice is a true testament to the power of the human spirit. One particularly moving scene shows Carter trying to convince his lawyers to take a risky last chance on his case because he has noh-
However, this does lead to some vague moments in the film when these people drop everything and move to New Jersey to be closer to Carter and work on his case. As compassionate as it may be, it leaves some questions about their motivation unanswered.
Denzel Washington is simply amazing. Acting does not get much better than this. He has a gift of being able to take a character and inhabit him so convincingly the audience gets a real sense of what Carter went through.
ing left to lose. Washington outdoes himself here - you can see the anger, frustration, hurt and desperation in his actions and on his face and hear it in his voice. A definite Oscar clip.
The story and dialogue are so compelling it's almost hard to believe it's based on a true story. Director Norman Jewison does a fine job of weaving the different parts of the story and characters together, using flashbacks and Carter's autobiography as his main tools. The few boxing scenes are done in black and white—a nice touch because boxing was the only clear-cut aspect of Carter's life, the only thing he really could control
The Hurricane is a great film about humanity—the purest form in that of true friendship and the lack thereof in the corrupt people who live their lives to make others miserable. It's a shame there aren't more films like this out there today, ones that show that even though there always will be injustices in the world, they can be overcome.
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