Both an examination of teenage mental illness and a conventional nuthouse drama, director Mangold's third film (HEAVY, COP LAND) never succeeds on the dramatic level it sets out to. The film starts out strong, presenting us with a teenage girl who is fairly disturbed, without realizing why. These scenes are handled very assuredly, relying mainly on Ryder's ability to convey her own psychosis through facial expressions and body language. However, any keen insight into Susana's condition is suspended for almost the entire middle section of the film, where it sacrifices depth for some melodrama and psycho-ward antics. Particularly interesting here is the way Jolie's Lisa seems to run things at the hospital; the nurses in the ward ask her for advice on their love lives. When things start to wind down, Leto, who plays his role like a POINT BREAK-era Keanu, shows back up even though he knew Susana only briefly before she entered Claymoore. Thankfully, Jolie's performance is such a showcase that it gives the film some focus during its more unsure moments. The movie gets going again when one of the girls who is clearly still disturbed is released and Susana and Lisa escape. Unfortunately, Mangold gives the movie an easy ending that doesn't fit at all with what has come before, producing an absurd exchange between Susana and Goldberg's nurse, and leaving us feeling a bit cheated at the end. However, the film's two stars save the movie from being a bore; Ryder keeps us in tune to Susana's emotions even when the film itself seems to forget about them and Jolie's histrionics keeps things interesting.
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