White Oleander Details

Late blooming film

White Oleander is a clunky title for a fairly smooth ride of a film, one which takes the viewer on a journey through the teenage years of Astrid, as she copes with her mother's incarceration for murder, a variety of foster homes and care centres, and finding herself in amongst all the chaos of other people's lives.

This is a surprisingly light movie given its somewhat serious themes and framework. Murder, suicide, abandonment, mental abuse - all are handled in such a way as to never fully engage the viewer's sympathy for Astrid and what she has to go through. The film needs to be a bit more gritty.

That said, there are lots of things to enjoy here, not least the performances. Alison Lohman as Astrid is amazing (she's even better in Matchstick Men), and holds her own in scenes with the likes of Robin Wright Penn and Michelle Pfeiffer. Pfeiffer in particular, is incredibly effective as Astrid's domineering mother. Even the smaller roles are well cast, and Peter Kosminsky's direction is admirable. The script is a little cliched in places, and a couple of scenes don't ring true, but only a couple.

If anything, White Oleander is a woman's movie told from the point of view of a child as she grows up. It has the requisite number of setbacks, and set-to's, and unfolds at a steady, methodical pace which helps the material enormously. The measured editing style also helps add nuance to things. If it doesn't succeed entirely, it is because the material, when all's said and done, requires more depth of feeling than it has been given. Still worth watching, though, so give it a try.

Interesting film - good enough plot to keep you watching all the way through. Michelle Pfieffer plays a good part even though she could do with a good talking to some times regarding the way she talks to her daughter. Make you understand what kids go through when the home is split up.