by Jsundave » Wed Jan 09, 2013 1:59 pm
I like Girl, Interrupted and I think it is a good depiction of someone in denial. I can relate to Kaysen in that sense. I guess she had the luxury of denial as her parents put her in an expensive, top notch hospital (ie. she didn't need to live on the outside world and struggle with distress this may bring).
It's probably a great starting point of discussion but is quite superficial in some ways and I wouldn't look to it for anything profound or particularly observant. It was a christmas time release and as always its those whose have no interest of knowledge of film (ie. the bank) who dictate what is in theatres and movies.
Ryder is great at giving off the sense of one wrong thing said by someone might set her off, especially in the opening scene in the psychiatrist's house. The scene in Dr Wick's office where she talks about ambivalence is really profound, for me at least. I think Lisa might well be a more acurate depiction of severe BPD, although her character lacks the vulnerability. I've often thought if Daisy might well have been BPD; in the film version anyway, she just never shows it because her relationship with her father wouldn't allow her to open up.
One scene I dislike is where Whoopi Goldberg says Kaysen is: "a self indulgent, little girl who is driving herself crazy."
The book is great. Towards the end Kaysen writes how the diagnostic criteria for BPD was an "accurate" depiction of her at seventeen however, was not "profound". Ironically the movie may well be the same. The Susanna Kaysen of 1999, the year the movie came out, has the benefit of hindsight and expert medical care, possibly diminishing the pain she went through at that age.