Hey folks, Harry here... Seems like ol Roy here has seen things we wouldn't believe, like Winona Ryder in a film that he says deserves Academy attention... Well, let's just hope it isn't a performance as temporary as teardrops in the rain...
Roy here---saw a test screening for the upcoming drama GIRL, INTERRUPTED from Columbia Pictures starring WINONA RYDER and directed by JAMES MANGOLD. The film is based on Susana Kaysen's best selling memoir with the same name(which I happened to have read and loved). Ryder has been in cold storage for a while now and there are many murmurs about whether she can bounce back. After this film is released she won't have to worry---a quite, powerful performance that ranks up there with her best. The film is moving and often darkly comical really capturing the feal of Kaysens' memoir.
Without giving too much away the film is about an 18 year-olds stay at a mental institution in the late 60s. The film examines her short rest period and her desire to get out of the Oz like world she's caught herself in. The film asks the quesiton what is sane and what is insane? Where are the boundaries between the two?. She meets many a characters including a sociopath(played with fiery intensity by Angelina Jolie), a gung-ho nurse(played nicely with a subtle touch by Whoopi Goldberg), and a rather misguided psychiatrist(played firmly by Vanessa Redgrave). Brittany Murphy and Clea Duvall also add nice support as two of the other girls in the hospital and Jared Leto shows up as Ryder's boyfriend. James Mangold really keeps the story along at a nice pace and Ryder holds the picture together with what might be her best work----accused of playing the 'girl' far too many times she transforms this girl into a woman and it's a transformation I don't think too many peopel will forget---hopefully the Academy won't at least.
