We've been celebrating Winona Ryder all week for her 50th birthday
by Matt St Clair
During this pandemic, I’ve thought a lot about the climactic scene in Girl, Interrupted (1999) where Susanna Kaysen (Winona Ryder) is in the tunnels of Claymoore, confronting Lisa (Angelina Jolie) for pressing her buttons and trying to force her to feel the same amount of misery she does. As Susanna contemplates how the overall world is a cruel, inhuman place, she still proclaims, “I’d rather be in it!”
At first glance, that proclamation is confusing. For Susanna, Claymoore and its thick walls are initially an escape from the cruel outside world. But between the specialists surrounding her generalizing what she’s feeling, and Lisa who acts as a confidante before proving that misery loves company, Susanna realizes that Claymoore isn’t entirely different from the world. Ultimately, she decides she’d rather be miserable yet out in the open than miserable and locked away...
As someone who deals with depression, the climax is a moment that has stuck with me during these turbulent pandemic times because during my toughest moments when retreating in bed or at home feels like a comfy alternative to stepping out of my own walls and into the cruel outside world, like Susanna, I decide to step out into it because I can at least be surrounded by people close to me or do leisurely things that give me happiness.
It’s also a moment that is delivered with subdued power by Winona Ryder. Ryder’s co-star Angelina Jolie reaped the film’s entire awards acclaim with her more livewire performance as the charismatic Lisa Rowe, eventually winning the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. But Jolie’s fellow supporting ladies (Brittany Murphy, Whoopi Goldberg, Vanessa Redgrave, etc.) also standout and, in the end, it’s Winona Ryder who holds the film together.
The film received mixed reviews in 1999, and Ryder’s performance also had its detractors, killing any Oscar dreams in Best Actress. While it's true that Ryder doesn’t reach career-best heights or stretch from her wheelhouse of neurotic outsiders, great stars don't always have to step out of their comfort zones to deliver fine work. Susanna's sensible sharp-tongue and her uneasy vulnerability perfectly suits Ryder’s skill set and Ryder pulls it off more wonderfully than she was credited for.
For what it’s worth, Ryder’s Susanna taught me to keep moving forward. I even use Petula Clark’s “Downtown,” which Susanne and Lisa perform at one point for a fellow patient to lift her spirits, as my own remedy on occasion. Awards aren't everything; there’s still no prize for resonating with viewers the way Ryder’s work in Girl, Interrupted has with me.
previously on Winona @ 50
Beetlejuice (1988)
Heathers (1989)
Mermaids (1990)
Age of Innocence (1993)
Little Women (1994)
up next:
one more to wrap things up... Stranger Things (2016-)