There's very little plot, and director Mangold's attempts to make a connection between the social confusion of the '60s and Susanna's inner turmoil don't really work.
60
VarietyEmanuel Levy
VarietyEmanuel Levy
A solid central performance by Winona Ryder and a captivating wild turn by Angelina Jolie in the yarn's flashiest role.
50
San Francisco ChroniclePeter Stack
San Francisco ChroniclePeter Stack
A sappy, muddled production that misses the jarring tone of the autobiographical book by Susanna Kaysen on which it is based.
Doesn't come close to matching the emotional depth and power of Frank Perry's 1962 "David and Lisa," the most involving and affecting film I've ever seen about teenagers and mental illness.
30
Film.comGemma Files
Film.comGemma Files
Ends up suffering from the classic diseases of book-to-film adaptation: triteness, overreliance of narration, and a general "need" to impose classic dramatic structure on what is not a particularly dramatic narrative.