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Post by ilovewinona on Dec 29, 2008 11:14:57 GMT -5
McMurphy is the embodiment of the free-thinking youth movement, with nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher in the film) standing in for the pointlessly belligerant social order. McMurphy's so-called insanity represents something larger than a mere wise guy locked up in a hospital. The standoffs between McMurphy and Ratched have a hard-bitten resonance, and Kesey's dark, sardonic sense of humor doesn't allow for much preaching. ----- Rusty
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Post by ilovewinona on Dec 30, 2008 20:21:46 GMT -5
Now the second part of the article ----- "Never Promised You a Rose Garden" ----- Just as Dan Quayle is no Jack Kennedy, Ryder is no Jack Nicholson, And Whoopi Goldberg sure as hell ain't Louise Fletcher. That's right, the stern authority figure who gooses things into action is played by none other than Goldberg, an actress of such mellow voice and benign grin that she couldn't provoke a Rottweiler. ----- Rusty
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Post by ilovewinona on Dec 31, 2008 9:33:43 GMT -5
Goldberg's character is such a font of understanding that her flare-ups at Susanna's willfulness seem like mini-explosions that will quickly recede. Susanna doesn't seem all that rebellious and her caretaker doesn't seem all that uncomprehending. ----- The therapists -- including Jeffrey Tambor and Vanessa Redgrave, who's brilliant as the queen of no B.S. -- are decent enough people. You find yourself siding with the authority figures, not a good thing given the period subtext. ----- Rusty
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Post by ilovewinona on Jan 3, 2009 8:26:04 GMT -5
The girls in the ward ("young women" would be closer to the truth) aren't particularly well-drawn. One of them has terrible scars on her face from a childhood self-immolation, while another (played by Brittany Murphy, who's fairly creepy) will eat only chickens from her dad's deli. Then she stores the bones under her bed. You wouldn't want to hang with her, but she's hardly the most cinematic mental patient you've ever seen. ----- Rusty
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Post by ilovewinona on Jan 4, 2009 20:23:59 GMT -5
There's little self-reflection in the dialogue, aside from Ryder's confrontations with the therapists. Each girl is simply issued a quirk that she drags around like a ball and chain. The only patient who really gets to speak up is Lisa, a sexy, mouthy sociopath played by Angelina Jolie. If Ryder doesn't compare to Nicholson, Jolie manages to take up the slack. Alas, the Jack she's channeling is the one who created vainglorious creatures like the devil in "The Witches of Eastwick" (1987) and the Joker in "Batman" (1989). ----- Rusty
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Post by ilovewinona on Jan 5, 2009 6:35:45 GMT -5
There's no denying Jolie's appeal. She's got a body to die for and unforgettable, throw-pillow lips. She just shows off more than she acts, prancing around and repeatedly falling into "rebellious" postures, too aware of her own allure to bother inhabiting a character. Though undeniably charismatic, Jolie would be better off if she weren't so pleased with herself. But then she might run the risk of seeming like someone who's locked up in a psych ward. ----- Sorry to say that's the end of the Review of "Girl Interrupted". ----- But next up is a great interview between Prairie Miller from bigstar.com and our lovely Winona Ryder. ----- Rusty
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Post by ilovewinona on Jan 9, 2009 9:50:30 GMT -5
"Girl Interrupted" : Winona Ryder Interview ----- By Prairie Miller ---------- Winona Ryder is an actress who insists on taking her movies personally. That's the big reason she took on the job as executive producer and star of James Mangold's "Girl Interrupted". Based on the autobiographical bestseller about Susanna Kaysen's two year incarceration as a teen in a mental hospital, "Girl Interrupted" also has much to say to Ryder abour her own brief mental breakdown and hospitalization at the age of nineteen. Ryder was open and candid in describing her private inner turmoil at the time. And on a lighter note, she has some surprising thoughts to share on her upcoming romantic lead opposite Richard Gere, including her own ambivalent feelings about his popular selection as the sexiest man alive. ----- Rusty
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Post by ilovewinona on Jan 12, 2009 10:16:33 GMT -5
PM: Who did your outifit today, can I ask? You have such a beautiful gray pleated skirt with that little black top. ----- Winona Ryder: Oh it's just bits and pieces. And it's all old, all my own. ----- PM: It is? Are you still in a '60's kind of thing, with your hair still very short and gamin like? ----- WR: I don't know! ----- PM: Is this the most important movie you've ever made in your life, in a way? ----- WR: In a way. ----- PM: Because it's a dream realized? ----- WR: Wait a minute. You're doing the interview for me! ----- PM: Oh sorry. ----- WR: Um ..... Well, wait. What were you saying? ----- Rusty
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Post by ilovewinona on Jan 13, 2009 9:12:14 GMT -5
PM: Why was this movie so important for you to make? ----- WR: Well, I read the book "Girl Interrupted" when I was twenty-one, and I sort of fell madly in love with it. I hadn't read anything like that, something so brutally honest. And it's also something that was cut with so much humor. I just found the characters so captivating, and so heartbreaking. And funny at the same time. So I just really fell in love with all the characters. ----- PM: Did you see yourself in your character? ----- WR: I did, in a way. I write a lot. I don't have any aspirations to be a writer, but I write in my journal a lot, every night actually. I have always kept a journal. So I really related to that aspect of it. She's someone who I kind if aspire to be like. I mean, her intelligence, and she's so funny and perceptive. So I would like to say that I am like her, but I would never presume to be. ----- Rusty
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Post by ilovewinona on Jan 16, 2009 8:25:59 GMT -5
PM ----- Do you relate to her alienation and depression, things like that? ----- WR ----- It is something that I definitely went through, yeah. ----- PM ----- At what age? ----- WR ----- I'd say nineteen. I'd say anybody would back me up in saying nineteen is a rough year, for everyone. ----- PM ----- That's true, but you seemed on top of the world as an actress back then. ----- WR ----- Yeah, but successful actors aren't really allowed to complain. Which I understand. And I understand that when actors complain, it sounds a little nauseating. We're very lucky, we're sickenlingly well paid and we have these very charmed lives. But along with that, there is a lot of kind of ugly stuff that goes with it, that the public doesn't see. ----- Rusty
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Post by ilovewinona on Jan 18, 2009 18:44:50 GMT -5
WR ----- A lot of it is stuff that has to do with being an actor, and a lot of it isn't. You know, a lot of it is just normal stuff that happens to kids who are in college cramming for exams, and whose parents are driving them crazy. Or they're breaking up with their first loves, just going through normal post-exiting adolescent stuff. And I think we all go through that. ----- Rusty
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Post by ilovewinona on Jan 24, 2009 11:57:34 GMT -5
PM: - You checked into a mental hospital for a week, and Susanna was there for two years ----- WR: - Yeah! She saw a psychiatrist for twenty minutes, and they lock her up for two years. It's absurd, she didn't need to be there. I mean, I do consider Susanna a rebel in a very internal way. But she did not need to be locked up. ----- PM: - What was that week like for you? ----- WR: - I didn't get anything from that place, I really didn't. I was so tired, I just wanted to sleep. They didn't help me at all. I was nineteen. What I learned was that, no matter how rich you are and how much you pay some hospital or doctor, they can't fix you. They can't give you a pill or a secret answer to anything that's going to make you all better. You have to figure it out for yourself. ----- Rusty
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Post by ilovewinona on Jan 31, 2009 9:09:32 GMT -5
PM: - How did you finally work it all out? ----- WR: - Suddenly everything became very real, and I realized it was okay to not have the answers. I just had to get through it on my own. And that life was confusing, the world was a weird place full of a lot of things that I'll never understand, but that I'm not supposed to understand. I mean, who's supposed to understand like war, disease and famine? And random violence, all that crazy stuff. Who's supposed to understand it? We'd be weird if we did understand it, you know? ----- And so I finally realized, I'm not supposed to understand everything. Life is just ..... weird, and messy. And I just have to get through it, and do my best. Either choose to move on, or stay miserable. And I chose to move on. ----- Rusty
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Post by ilovewinona on Feb 9, 2009 10:27:59 GMT -5
PM ----- Was it scary in one of those places? ----- WR - It was scary. It was, you know, a lot like the hospital wing in "Girl Interrupted". It was a very bare, sort of stark place where they take everything away from you. I was only there for five days, but it was something that I definitely could use for the movie, that feeling when you first walk into the place. You feel very alone and frightened. But I was a volunteer and I could leave at any time, so it was different. ----- PM - What kind of relationship have you developed with Susanna Kaysen? ----- WR - I'm choosing not to talk about that. I'm choosing to keep my time with her and my relationship with her private, because it's very special. ----- Rusty
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Post by ilovewinona on Feb 10, 2009 7:59:31 GMT -5
PM - Do you still love the movie business as much as when you started out, or have your experiences changed your feelings at all? ----- WR - Yeah, I mean, it's weird. I still feel like a kid in a way. I still get really excited when I get a job, and I still get really excited the first day of work. I'm still fascinated by the camera, and I love my job still. And I think when I stop loving my job is when I'll stop doing it. But I know, it's sort of up to the audiences when they stop liking me and stop going to see my movies. That's when I'll stop, because I won't get hired! ----- PM - You've been away from movies for two years. What was the reason for the break? ----- WR - I was really, really concentrating on this project, and I really wanted to wait to do something that was really important to me. I didn't want to work just for the sake of working. And it was important for me to have a life outside of just working. I live up in San Francisco, and it was important to me to spend time with my friends and my family. And I have a new niece. So it's important to me that I have a life outside of this business. -------- Rusty
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