We Need To Talk About Lisa

I watched Girl, Interrupted for about the fifth time the other evening, having seen Leah Shelton’s brilliant show Batshit. (My review of it is up on Fest magazine). I was wondering if it still held up, having not watched for a while. It’s good, if flawed : James Mangold directs brilliantly, but the narration and music is a little twee. Don’t soft -soap mental illness, please, film directors

Winona Ryder as Susanna Kaysen, the titular character, is very good-introspective, sweet and yet headstrong. But for me, it’s all about Lisa Rowe. We need to focus on women like Lisa. She’s endlessly fascinating. Lisa is funny, sexy, and dangerously capricious. Dressed like 1969- era Iggy Pop, Angelina Jolie makes you feel for Lisa. She’s also seriously damaged, flawed and, potentially, a sociopath.

I feel like the representation of female characters in cinema still leans towards the archetype, but Lisa is far more complex, much more interesting. She’d seduce your brother, then steal his car. Still, your heart would break for her, because in another world, she would be together, a famous, but respected rock star, using rage like fuel, a la Patti Smith. She’d be okay. But life hasn’t been fair to Lisa, and when Susanna blames her for Daisy’s suicide, we see the sliver of vulnerability so missing elsewhere.The vicious but insightful quips dry up. The veneer splits open. She admits that she isn’t dead inside, she feels. She’s in pain, a lost little girl in a hospital bed, and little more. Susanna finally tore off the sticking plasters holding Lisa together. More flawed, complex women like Lisa on the big screen, please. We need to see the hurt, the unfiltered, the ones who fell through the cracks.