Winona Ryder's character Susannah may be the chief protagonist in this film, but she is seriously eclipsed by Angelina Jolie's Oscar winning performance as psychopath Lisa Rowe who keeps absconding from the hospital and who uses her considerable powers of manipulation to run rings around the staff and patients. When she befriends Susannah, she is a malignant influence - encouraging her to not take her tablets and to generally become an obnoxious little brat. On her next sortie out of the hospital, Lisa brings Susannah with her and they wind up at a discharged inmate's flat. Daisy Randone is driven to suicide by Lisa's aggression and her comments on the alleged incestuous relationship with her father. Lisa even robs Daisy's hanging body for money. Susannah is appalled at her callousness and goes back to be a good little mental patient. Lisa is eventually caught and does all she can to annoy Susannah - such as taking her journal and reading out her unflattering observations on the ward's patients. Susannah aims some carefully worded verbal missives to Lisa and she has a mental breakdown. Angelina Jolie has a lot of fun with the character of Lisa Rowe, playing her to malevolent, unhinged, bad girl par excellence. With her performance as a vicious sociopath, Jolie steals the film from under Ryder's nose; contrasted to Lisa Rowe, Susannah who is a rather wet and boring central character.
My first film watched was Carrie aged 2 on my dad's knee. Educated at The University of St Andrews and Trinity College Dublin. Fan of Arthouse, Exploitation, Horror, Euro Trash, Giallo, New French Extremism. Weaned at the bosom of a Russ Meyer starlet. The bleaker, artier or sleazier the better!