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About
Set in the changing world of the late 1960s, Susanna Kaysen's prescribed "short rest" from a psychiatrist she had met only once becomes a strange, unknown journey into Alice's Wonderland, where she struggles with the thin line between normal and crazy. Susanna soon realizes how hard it is to get out once she has been committed, and she ultimately has to choose between the world of people who belong inside or the difficult world of reality outside.
Theatrical
Jan 14, 2000
Box Office
$48.4M
Budget
$40.0M
Return
1.2x
DVD / Blu-ray
Jun 6, 2000
Theaters
1
Director
Writers
Lisa Loomer, James Mangold, Anna Hamilton Phelan
Producers
Cathy Konrad, Douglas Wick, Carol Bodie
Music
Studio
Red Wagon Entertainment, Columbia Pictures
Keywords
based on novel or book
suicide attempt
identity
female friendship
insanity
borderline personality disorder
based on true story
psychiatric hospital
escape
female protagonist
mental institution
based on memoir or autobiography
psychiatrist
mental illness
psychiatric ward
meditative
medical drama
1960s
introspective
compassionate
gentle
Quotes
See all →The Struggle for Connection and Recognition
Lisa Rowe
You know, there's too many buttons in the world. There's too many buttons and they're just - there's way too many just begging to be pressed, they're just begging to be pressed, you know? They're just - they're just begging to be pressed! And it makes me wonder, it really makes me fucking wonder, why doesn't anyone ever press mine? Why am I so neglected? Why doesn't anyone reach in and rip out the truth and tell me that I'm a fucking whore, or that my parents wish I were dead?
Susanna Kaysen
Because you're dead already, Lisa! No one cares if you die, Lisa, because you're dead already. Your heart is cold. That's why you keep coming back here. You're not free. You need this place to feel alive. It's pathetic.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Struggling to Understand Mental Illness
Valerie Owens
What would you have said to her?
[about Daisy]
Susanna Kaysen
I don't know. That I was sorry. That I will never know what it was like to be her. But I know what it's like to want to die. How it hurts to smile. How you try to fit in but you can't. You hurt yourself on the outside to try to kill the thing on the inside.
Valerie Owens
Susanna, it's all and well and good to tell me all this; but you gotta tell some of this to your doctors.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Cast
Full credits →
Winona Ryder
Susanna
Angelina Jolie
Lisa
C
Clea DuVall
Georgina
B
Brittany Murphy
Daisy
E
Elisabeth Moss
Polly
J
Jared Leto
Tobias Jacobs
J
Jeffrey Tambor
Dr. Potts
V
Vanessa Redgrave
Dr. Wick
W
Whoopi Goldberg
Valerie
A
Angela Bettis
Janet
J
Jillian Armenante
Cynthia
D
Drucie McDaniel
M-G
J
Joanna Kerns
Annette
T
Travis Fine
John
J
Josie Gammell
Mrs. McWilley
B
Bruce Altman
Prof. Gilcrest
M
Mary Kay Place
Mrs. Gilcrest
R
Ray Baker
Mr. Kaysen
K
KaDee Strickland
Bonnie Gilcrest
K
Kurtwood Smith
Dr. Crumble
