Movie Adaptation Monday! - Girl, Interrupted

Each weekend I'm going to try to watch the movie adaptation of a book I've read and compare the two in a not-so-formal way. If I'm feeling particularly ambitious, I'll try to read the book and watch the film in the same week. We'll see how it goes . . .

I loved Susanna Kaysen's memoir when I read it last fall. I seldom remember specific lines from the books I read, but there are moments that, cliché as it is, will stay with me forever.

Even though I've been meaning to see the movie since it first came out, I hadn't done so until yesterday. Despite anticipating the viewing for nearly a decade, and even with a slew of actresses who I thought were quite good in their roles, I was disappointed. Certain characters are given larger roles, some become less significant, and quite a few of the scenes never occur in the memoir. While these added scenes are more dramatic and action-packed than comparable moments in the book, they aren't as effective. I didn't expect the film adhere to to the book perfectly, but there is something subtle about Kaysen's memoir that ultimately makes a greater impact. In the movie, the bond between the girls in the hospital never feels as developed or believable as it does in Kaysen's account, and of course, in the film, it's harder to know exactly what is going through the character's mind. However biased her view may be, Kaysen describes her mental state and reaction to being institutionalized with a clarity and poignancy that is lost in the film.

One thing I did enjoy about the film, however, is the way it handles the anachronistic nature of Kaysen's memoir. Since Kaysen feels as though she can't always tell the past from the present, the film makers use the idea of Kaysen's thoughts drifting to an earlier time to their benefit. Kaysen will be in a doctor's office or in her bedroom until something triggers her memory and the scene will change to an event that occurred prior to the time line of the film.

If the book didn't exist, I might have a more favorable view of the movie. And even though Kaysen herself has said that memoirs shouldn't be taken as fact--that the author can be very manipulative in what he or she discloses--it bothered me that Kaysen's name was used for the main character when the movie was so drastically different from her own account. If you're going to put the name of an actual person in your movie that's based on her memoir, at least make some attempt to represent her telling of the story.

I thought I was just being cranky until I came across this article where Kaysen says she doesn't like the film either. She's kind of an authority on the subject matter . . .