Girl Interrupted 🎥 1999 Movie Info

Plot Summary

In New England, aimless eighteen-year-old Susanna Kaysen has an acute psychiatric episode and overdoses on aspirin and alcohol. Against her wishes, she is checked into Claymoore, a local psychiatric hospital. In the psychiatric ward, Susanna befriends Polly “Torch” Clark, a young teen girl who was burnt in a sixth-grade fire; Cynthia Crowley, who has severe depression; Daisy Randone, who self-harms and has obsessive–compulsive disorder; Georgina Tuskin, a pathological liar and Susanna’s roommate; and Janet Webber, a sardonic woman with anorexia nervosa. Susanna is particularly drawn to the sociopath Lisa Rowe, who is rebellious but charismatic and encourages Susanna to stop taking her medication and resist therapy.

Lisa helps the girls sneak around at night in the hospital’s underground tunnels and continuously provokes them and the staff, including the stern head nurse, Valerie Owens. Through regular therapy sessions with Dr. Melvin Potts, Susanna learns she has borderline personality disorder, a fact Dr. Potts initially conceals from her. On a rare supervised group outing celebrating Daisy’s impending discharge, the women visit an ice cream parlor. Susanna is confronted by Barbara Gilcrest, the wife of an English instructor with whom she had an affair, and their daughter, Bonnie. Barbara publicly chastises Susanna for sleeping with her husband; coming to Susanna’s defense, Lisa insultingly berates Barbara, and the other girls mock Bonnie before they both leave, humiliated.

This endears Lisa to Susanna even more, though Valerie reprimands Lisa. In addition to her affair with Dr. Gilcrest, Susanna has a casual relationship with Toby, a young man who has been drafted to serve in the Vietnam War. He visits Susanna and begs her to run away with him to Canada. Susanna declines, citing her friendship with the other patients. The same night, Polly has a breakdown and is placed in isolation. Susanna and Lisa drug the night watch nurse with a sedative and attempt to comfort Polly by singing to her.

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