Girl Interrupted

A couple of years ago I was sitting in a hotel room flipping through television channels and ended up settling on a random one. As the picture came into focus on screen I was met with the faces of Angelina Jolie, Winona Ryder, and Brittany Murphy, and suddenly I became enthralled with the scenes playing out before me. However, I seemed to have stumbled upon the movie at the worst time because within minutes Murphy’s character’s lifeless body was hanging lifelessly in her bathroom. The scene was so disturbing that I remember instantly changing the channel, trying to forget what I had just saw. Funny enough, that scene was once again shown to me this week as I watched the film ‘Girl Interrupted.’

Once again that scene in the movie was the moment that stood out to me the most. The fact that the character Daisy became so distressed with her life and her disease that she decided to take her own life was heartbreaking. In the movie Jolie’s character, Lisa, is shown belittling Daisy to the point of extremity. After researching a little about the original story I discovered that Lisa was not even at Daisy’s house when she committed suicide. In fact Lisa didn’t even here about it until days later. Daisy took her life because of her own demons, not because she was suddenly verbally abused. The author of the novel that the movie is based off of is said to have been upset with the way that incident was portrayed and I can see why.

Although Daisy’s suicide was not accurately portrayed on film, the fact that her suicide even occurred is still one of the most important parts in the story. It’s hard to believe that an institution could let someone leave their care when they’re not fully cured. Daisy was obviously still struggling with her illness, and the fact that she was removed from the good influences of people in the hospital was not fair to her. I wish her father had realized that his daughter was not going to get better by herself. If he would have understood this and if she wouldn’t have been in denial maybe there would have been a different outcome for her.