The film opens with a shot of a barred window, which then tracks downwards slowly to reveal the main character. The lighting is incredibly dark, as the only evident source of light is the window itself: the immediate onset of darkness suggests a possible dark narrative for the film in the first few seconds. The non-diegetic music is almost lullaby-like, but when contrasted with the dark setting it is quite eerie, which also suggests a dark narrative for the film.
The main character, played by Winona Ryder, is revealed as the camera continues to pan down. She wears an unreadable, vacant facial expression, leaving the audience intrigued as to what she is feeling and why she is in such an eerie environment. Another character is shown laying in her lap, played by Angelina Jolie. This character appears still, and the audience may question if she was even alive until she blinks, possibly crying. Her facial expression displays deep sadness, which leaves the audience even more confused as to the events that have lead the characters to this situation.
Two more characters are shown, one clearly distraught, disfigured girl holding a cat, which soon escapes her grip and begins to walk towards the window shown in the first shot. The camera follows it, almost as if it were the main character's own eyes following the cat. While this action is happening, the camera cuts to show broken glass on the floor being swept up. Another girl picks up a needle and hands it to someone off-screen: this suggests that someone has overdosed on drugs, and the audience may correlate to the almost-dead expression of Jolie's character.
At this point, the camera cuts back to Ryder's character and she begins to speak on the voiceover: "Have you ever confused a dream with life? Or stolen something when you have the cash? Have you ever been blue? Or thought your train moving while sitting still?" While she says this, security guard-like figures are shown at an entrance to the dark room, carrying torches. There is still no diegetic sound in the scene, only the music and the voice-over.
The voice-over continues: "Maybe I was just crazy. Maybe it was the sixties. Or maybe I was just a girl, interrupted." At this last sentence, Ryder turns towards the camera, face still vacant, and sirens begin to sound, cutting off the calm music. Hands grip her shoulders, and the scene immediately changes to her character being held down on a hospital bed with a tube down her throat. The editing between these two scenes is so effective as the settings change immediately as she says the word 'interrupted'.
This new setting contrasts wildly with the previous, as it is light and full of colour and noise. From what the doctors are discussing, the character has overdosed on aspirin with alcohol: this is a vital reveal of the narrative and genre, and the audience have some idea of what to expect from this character, though there is still intrigue as to why she tried to kill herself. The audience hears the character's voice for the first time as she moans "You should check my hand, there's no bones in it." Her wrist is shown with a large bruise, and a doctor is heard stating "Looks like a wrist banger. Is that why you did this?" She replies with "And other things. Sometimes it's hard, for me to stay in one place." Almost as rapid as the first scene change, the setting changes again, after the audio overlaps and the audience learn the character's name: Susanna.
A therapist-type figure is revealed to be the source of the voice calling Susanna's name. He asks "If you had no bones in your hand, how did you pick up the aspirin?" Susanna wears her vacant expression once again, though she looks slightly taken aback by the man's question.
The genre of the film has been established as drama, as the opening scenes were definitely dramatic in their context, though it could also be a biography/life story film as it follows Susanna and her life closely. I chose to analyse Girl, Interrupted because I love the mystery of the very first scene: the characters are just shown, not introduced, and the events raise so many questions that are answered as the film goes on. Susanna as a character is difficult to establish as the entire film is about her struggle with borderline personality disorder, though even in the first three minutes her thoughts and feelings are introduced in the voiceover and overdose scene. The narrative is also suggested by the flash-forward at the very beginning, and the scene with the therapist hinting that Susanna is going to face the consequences of her attempted overdose.
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