Lizzie Wurtzel is a strange loner in high school living with her divorced mother (Jessica Lange). She starts her studies in Harvard as a writer. Ruby (Michelle Williams) is her new roommate. She loses her virginity to Noah (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) and throws a party for the occasion. She becomes promiscuous with sex and drugs. In 1985, her writing even gets into Rolling Stone magazine. The return of his father (Nicholas Campbell) disturbs her. She falls into obsessions, drug addictions and continues her lifelong depression. Her friends bring her to therapist Dr. Sterling (Anne Heche). She cheats with Ruby's boyfriend. She also has writer's block. She starts dating Rafe (Jason Biggs) seeing him as her savior.I appreciate Elizabeth Wurtzel trying to bring her life experience onto the screen. However I don't think it's dramatic enough. At least, it's not dramatic as filmed by Erik Skjoldbjærg. It's like her illness. The movie is a trying experience. I have a difficult time trying to feel alongside her character. Maybe if I had similar mental problem, I could empathize with the character. The movie may become more compelling.

for me,Prozac Nation was just blah.it didn't engage me on any level.i didn't care about the main character,or any of the characters,for that matter.i just didn't see the point of it.usually after watching a movie,i come to this site soon after and put in my two cents.this time i couldn't really be bothered until now,almost two weeks later.anyway,suffice to say,i didn't get anything out of the movie.basically i lost ninety five +/- minutes i'll never get back,in which i could have been doing something else more productive.if you do end up watching this movie and mange to get to the halfway point,and decide to watch to the end,(like i did)thinking it will get better,trust me,it won't.but that's just my opinion.for me,Prozac Nation is a 4/10

I didn't hate it. I didn't love it. It gets a 6 instead of a 5 for the lovely music.Since this is based on a memoir, I guess we can easily guess why the author disapproved of the film. Like all films, it has to be edited for time and pacing, and thus, the pure accuracy is lost.I don't think it took away from the memoir itself, necessarily. It's faster and straight forward. I think her strong desire for a quick fix drug should have appeared more.I thought I could relate more to the book and film, but I guess I can't. Yes, she comes off as whiny and manipulative in the film, but compared to the book, she is an angel. It seemed to only scratch the surface of depression. No time to feel sympathy whatsoever.So I guess, in that way, the film failed to offer an insight, but rather to show what it's like to be a friend or family member of a depressive. We already know what it's like to be around a depressed person. Even the depressed know that they drive others crazy. There is nothing new here.The cast did a great job. The always-hysterical mother was captured pretty well, I think. They captured most of what was truly important in the memoir, so for having to cut it down to the length of a film, I have to give them credit for keeping the bare elements intact.It lacks clarity, but so does depression. I love the film for its truth, but I hate it for not providing the point of view that it was supposed to. It's on the fence, but worth watching for sure.

I haven't read the novel, and I did not know anything about Wurtzel before watching this, though I understand that she was rather unhappy with how this turned out, and I have no doubt that the book is better(it almost always is, not due to that medium being superior, both have positive aspects to them that the other does not, but adaptations between forms of expression face many difficulties). This is not a pleasant film. It is tense throughout, is not terribly "Hollywood"(meaning, mainstream audiences are not going to expect what this holds), and a lot of people are not going to like it. This is fast-paced, and it could perhaps have helped if there were more dwelling. It doesn't really give you a lot of a chance to take it all in, until the about 90 minutes are up. The acting is excellent, Ricci displays her usual incredible talent, Lange does marvelous, and Biggs turns out to be rather solid. There's not a single poor performance in this. The cinematography, editing and direction are effective. While I haven't watched anything else by Skjoldbjærg, I have been interested in doing so, such as Insomnia, since remade for American audiences by Christopher Nolan(and that version, I have seen, and enjoyed immensely). The writing is magnificent, and everything felt completely credible, characters, occurrences, all of it. This has a little nudity, some sex, disturbing material and relatively infrequent strong language. The DVD holds a few cast interviews, the Anatomy of a Scene episode done on this movie, a theatrical trailer and sneak previews. I recommend this to anyone who thinks it is for them, and who are mature enough to handle it. 7/10