Synopsis

In 1967, eighteen-year-old Susanna Kaysen is admitted to Claymoore psychiatric hospital after a suspected suicide attempt. As she adjusts to institutional life, she forms intense friendships with the other patients, especially the charismatic and dangerous Lisa. Under the guidance of the hospital staff, Susanna gradually confronts her diagnosis, her troubled behavior, and the uncertainty surrounding her future.

Factoids & Trivia

• The film is adapted from Susanna Kaysen's 1993 memoir, which recounts her eighteen-month stay at McLean Hospital in Massachusetts during the late 1960s.

• Winona Ryder acquired the screen rights to Kaysen's memoir and spent several years developing the project before production began.

• Much of the hospital material was filmed at Harrisburg State Hospital in Pennsylvania. The facility remained in use until 2006, giving the production an unusually authentic institutional setting.

• Filming also took place in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. The town's period appearance and an old-fashioned drugstore helped establish the film's late-1960s atmosphere.

• The original edit reportedly ran about three hours. Approximately fifteen minutes of deleted material was later included as bonus content on the DVD.

• The film reshapes the memoir's episodic structure into a more conventional dramatic narrative, adding or expanding several events and relationships for the screen.

• Angelina Jolie's performance earned her the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, along with Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild awards.