Winona Ryder @ 50: "Girl Interrupted"
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...