WHITE OLEANDER, is the tale of an intense and toxic mother-daughter relationship, coupled with a look at the fundamentally skewed U.S. foster care system. When the beautiful photographer Ingrid Magnusson (Michelle Pfeiffer) is imprisoned for allegedly murdering a philandering boyfriend, her daughter Astrid (Alison Lohman) does .. Read more
| Starring | Alison Lohman, Michelle Pfeiffer, Billy Connolly, Renee Zellweger |
|---|---|
| Director | Peter Kosminsky |
| Genres | Drama |
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WHITE OLEANDER, is the tale of an intense and toxic mother-daughter relationship, coupled with a look at the fundamentally skewed U.S. foster care system. When the beautiful photographer Ingrid Magnusson (Michelle Pfeiffer) is imprisoned for allegedly murdering a philandering boyfriend, her daughter Astrid (Alison Lohman) does her best to survive a string of foster homes where natural adolescent mistakes turn into land mines. Her first stop is the home of a born-again Christian, Starr (Robin Wright Penn, who is so good in this part she's physically unrecognisable.) Next, she is sent to the home of a clinically depressed actress, Claire Richards (Renee Zellweger, whose natural effervescence is delightfully disturbing here.) Claire uses Astrid to fill the void left by a roaming husband (Noah Wyle). Astrid juggles her list of changing homes with visits to Mummy Dearest in prison, while suffering flashbacks of the alleged murder.
| Starring | Alison Lohman, Michelle Pfeiffer, Billy Connolly, Renee Zellweger, Robin Wright Penn |
|---|---|
| Director | Peter Kosminsky |
| Studio | REDBUS |
| Run time | DVD: 1 hr 45 mins |
| Certificate | |
| Genres | Drama |
| Language | DVD: English |
| Released | DVD: 20 Feb 2004 Production year: 2002 |
| Format | DVD |
It would have been easy to rework Janet Fitch's bestseller — a teenager is fostered out after her artist mother is jailed for murdering her lover — as a stellar TV movie, particularly as director Peter Kosminsky has some pedigree on the small-screen with such recent offerings as The Project and Warriors. But he rejects the melodrama-by-numbers option and uses attention-grabbing imagery to convey much of the confusion Alison Lohman feels after Michelle Pfeiffer's arrest. Moreover, his assured grasp of structure and pacing, and some accomplished acting, ensure that we only gradually come to appreciate the shifting nature of their relationship, as Lohman learns to think for herself while living with Robin Wright Penn's trailer-park Christian, Renée Zellweger's touchingly tragic actress and Svetlana Efremova's wily hustler.
'Don't cry! We are Vikings!' instructs Ingrid (a parodically highfalutin' Pfeiffer) to her poor suffering daughter... read more on Time Out
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.
Rupert Grint and Robert Pattinson have both been tipped to play Prince Harry in a movie about the monarch's life. Director Peter Kosminsky is set to begin casting for biopic The Spare, which will depict the royal's experience losing his mother Princess Diana and serving for the Army in Afghanistan. The filmmaker is said to be considering British actors Grint and Pattinson for the lead, as well as Pride and Prejudice star Rupert Friend, according to Britain's Daily Star newspaper. Kosminsky... Read more