Girl, Interrupted

"Was I ever crazy? Maybe. Or maybe life is... Crazy isn't being broken or swallowing a dark secret. It's you or me amplified. If you ever told a lie and enjoyed it. If you ever wished you could be a child forever. They were not perfect, but they were my friends and by the '70s most of them were out living lives. Some I've seen, some never again, but there isn't a day my heart doesn't find them." Susanna; Girl, Interrupted (1999)

This line struck me as I watched Susanna sit in the back of the same cab she had ridden in before. I realized how true and honest it was. "It's you or me amplified." We all know we have told lies for enjoyment, how could you not? When someone asks you if you like the clothes they have on, and you honestly hate them, do you say it to their face? Some people do, but I know I will almost always answer with a simple white lie. So couldn't it be said that if you amplified that part of me, the part that doesn't want to state the truth, that I would be no different than Georgina? It is really quite simple. Everyone has "crazy" tendencies, they are just lesser known than the characters in the movie or the people in hospitals.

It is difficult for some to admit to these tendencies. Some people are so caught up in their own worlds that they don't want to admit they could have a little insanity inside them. This makes Susanna even more unique. Watching the movie, we all know she is (almost) perfectly normal. We see her daydream and lose herself, but who doesn't at some point? Especially when being lectured at by people who think they know her better than she knows herself. She realizes and admits to having, though, this tendency and this touch of insanity everyone has. She is told this makes her different in a strange, corky sort of way. And she accepts it. She signs herself into the hospital only because everyone else tells her it's wrong.

I will admit that this experience was good for her in a sense, allowing her to learn about herself through others, and it was possibly necessary for her to make he life choices she did. She admits that seeing death made it just that much less appealing. So maybe she needed to meet Daisy, maybe she needed to see her hanging there after being driven further into insanity by Lisa, maybe this saved her from doing something terrible to herself later on. We will never know. It still seems awfully harsh, someone so young seeing so much evil.

Overall, I enjoyed Girl, Interrupted. I thought it was a wonderful movie and I enjoyed searching for little things like color and pattern like we did while watching Jaws just a few days back. Some scenes bothered me, like whenever Susanna went off on any of my other favorite characters like Polly and Valerie, but I got over them soon enough. I look forward to watching the movie again sometime soon to see if I can find anything I missed the first time!

I'll let you all know if I do! =D


IMDB; Girl, Interrupted (1999)