Set in a New England psychiatric institution in 1967, this commendable drama from director/co-writer James Mangold has a similar agenda to Milos Forman's Oscar-winning classic One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, but never quite reaches the same peaks of poignancy. Mangold makes clever use of jarring narrative cuts to convey Winona Ryder's confused state of mind. The film is also extremely well cast. Oscar winner Angelina Jolie is mesmerising as a pushy, pouting troublemaker, and Whoopi Goldberg is also good value as a no-nonsense nurse. Yet there's a definite feeling the producers were hoping to set off brighter emotional fireworks than this well-intentioned but lightweight movie actually provides.

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.