Girl, Interrupted Movie Review

For this paper I chose to watch Girl, Interrupted. This film, to me, is wonderful, and I will proceed to tell you why I think so too. I will also explain why it is relevant to sociology. Girl, Interrupted is about an 18-year-old girl named Susanna Kaysen who suffers a breakdown and attempts suicide. Susanna is sent to a psychiatric hospital in the 1960s, where her story is told between flashbacks and present day. Once at the hospital, named Claymoore, she meets her roommate Georgina who is a pathological liar; Polly, a childlike schizophrenic; Daisy, who has obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and self-harms. She also meets Lisa, a sociopath, who she is innately drawn to. Lisa is a charismatic, rebellious person who encourages Susanna, and others to stop taking their medicine and resist therapy. The central theme of this movie is the struggle Susanna has with herself and her identity, ultimately she questions if she is crazy. In flashbacks, we see Susanna's highs and lows in life she can't sleep, uses sex with inappropriate men to cope with her feelings, acts out in with her family. It is ultimately determined that she has borderline personality disorder, which causes her to dramatically change.

The movie goes through one major arc, Susanna and Lisa run away from Claymoore having no money and no where to go on their journey to Florida, they stop at Daisy's home. Daisy was previously released for being cured, but everyone knows that she just told the doctors what they wanted to hear and it didn't hurt that her daddy is rich. Once at Daisy's place Lisa begins to taunt Daisy after seeing her cuts on her arms confirming her suspensions regarding her release for her lavish apartment that her daddy is paying for, blatantly stating that he sexually abuses her and she likes it. Daisy proceeds to ask them to leave in the morning and to not contact her again. Susanna at this point is shocked, she goes up to Daisy's room in the morning to talk, there she finds Daisy had slit her wrists and hanged herself. Susanna is appalled with Lisa, who shows no remorse for the harsh words that were said. Lisa proceeds to steal the money from Daisy's dead body and leaves. Susanna realizes she doesn't want to be like Lisa, she phones the police and returns to Claymoore.

Upon her return, Susanna works hard on getting herself better. She begins to sleep through the night, paint and write, even cooperating with her therapy. Before she is released, Lisa finally returns to Claymoore. Lisa discovers that Susanna is getting out and steals her cat and diary, reading aloud to the amusement of the other patients they are lose to, trying to turn them against Susanna. Susanna, finally confronts Lisa about her being a cold, dark person, and that she ultimately feels sorry for her. On the day of her release, she goes to make amends with Lisa. While leaving the hospital, Susanna realizes her cab driver is the same one she had when entering Claymoore. As she reflects in the final moments, she states that almost every girl got out of Claymoore, some she has seen since and some she never saw again but she states that Claymoore and the memories with those girls will be with her forever.

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