White Oleander is a flower – beautiful, but poisonous – like a mother’s love…

Well to be honest the tagline did little to interest me in the film, and it looked to all intents and purposes like the sort of film I wouldn’t really enjoy. However, it had two of my all-time favourite actresses in it – Michelle Pfeiffer and Renee Zellweger – so I just had to see it anyway! Also I’ve never seen Alison Lohman in anything and don’t particularly remember seeing Sean Penn’s wife Robin Wright Penn in any films either, so there was a little added curiosity factor. To my surprise, White Oleander turned out to be the best film of its type that I’ve ever seen…

Ingrid Magnussen (Michelle Pfeiffer) is an artist, a mother, and an incredibly strong woman (perhaps not all that nice, but very strong!), who is imprisoned for the murder of her cheating boyfriend, Barry (Billy Connolly). Her daughter Astrid (Alison Lohman) regularly goes to see her as she is shunted from foster home to social service establishment to foster home, and Ingrid is determined that Astrid learn how to survive.. in time however, Astrid begins to realise that not all of her mother’s advice is really for her own good…

Among the foster homes she encounters “Christian” woman Starr (Robin Wright Penn), who is very interested in seeing to it that Astrid gets saved, but isn’t too worried about her own immoral lifestyle, and needy actress Claire Richards (Renee Zellweger). As she defines her own identity in life, Astrid finds her relationship with her mother changing…

There’s a lot more to the plot that I won’t go into, but it’s very well put together and always interesting, if perhaps not exciting – but then it’s not that sort of film. It’s an absorbing character study, and doesn’t suffer from any of the normal problems I normally find with character studies where the main character is a woman – it doesn’t vilify men at every opportunity, it isn’t excessively manipulative, and it doesn’t feature half and hour of various women crying, often for no apparent reason. The male characters in this film are not evil personified, neither are the women characters goodness itself. In fact, the male characters come out of things rather better than the women, a lot of whom are extremely unpleasant. Ingrid’s crime of passion is neither overtly excused or accused, just presented as a fact, and unlike most films where female criminals tend to get away with everything, she does have to pay for her crime. Her daughter’s reaction to this as she progresses through her life is very believable. An artist herself, Astrid has to learn to see things in a whole new way – it takes her time to realise it, but that new way is not necessarily her mother’s way… There are also unresolved issues about her past that she desperately tries to find out about, which is not just a case f knowing who to ask, but also how to ask…

The cast is superb (Connolly seemed a strange choice to me but he doesn’t appear for very long and doesn’t crack any jokes!!), with Lohman and Pfeiffer being exceptional, as so many other reviewers have already stated. Penn and Zellweger are fine in their roles, despite having relatively little screen time, and unsung actress Amy Aquino puts in another memorable performance. Noah Wyle [Dr Carter of ER] makes an appearance and is fine, but the best male performance is by Patrick Fungit [Almost Famous] as Paul, who lives in one of the social services establishment that Astrid spends time in. Director Peter Kominsky (who has done a fair bit of TV wok but no movies apart from this one) does a superb job of keeping the pace flowing while allowing enough time for the emotional shots. He also makes good use of flashbacks to help keep it interesting without it getting too confusing, and the ending was a bit of a surprise (which I almost always think is a good thing!).

There are really only two small criticisms I had of this film. Firstly the musical score was rather uninspiring, not bad but too repetitively used and lacking real emotional pull. Other than that, I found Lohman’s narrative voice slightly annoying as it sounded like she was putting a lot of forced emotion into it. Two very minor complaints, however, about a superb film.

Though this would probably be classed very much as a “woman’s film”, I think there are plenty of men out there who would enjoy watching it. Incidentally, in case you find this useful for comparison, I rather enjoyed “Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café” but thought that “Steel Magnolias” was manipulative drivel. (Don’t stone me for saying that…) So there you have it.

I liked White Oleander so much, in fact, that not only did I give it 5 stars but I’ve also had to re-shuffle my Top Ten Films of 2002! As character studies go I would almost rank it as highly as A Beautiful Mind - and I can’t give much higher commendation than that!!

Additional Information

MPAA rating: Rated PG-13 for mature thematic elements concerning dysfunctional relationships, drug content, language, sexuality and violence. UK rating: 12.

DVD Extras

Feature-length audio commentary by Director and Writer
Cast and Crew Interviews
TV Spots
Trailer

English for hearing impaired and English subtitles

I never bother with audio commentaries to be honest so I have no idea how good they are, and the interviews seemed a little too mushy for me, but I got the DVD as on of 3 to £10 from Morrison’s supermarket on a whim so I’m not complaining about it!!

Strange But True…

The Daily Mirror’s review stated that this was “A good, old-fashioned sentimental girlie movie” – I don’t think this could be further from the truth!! I don’t think I’d have enjoyed it much if it had been…

Related Links

Michelle Pfeiffer was also in: The Russia House

Renee Zellweger was also in: Cold Mountain, Bridget Jones’s Diary

Amy Aquino was also in: In Good Company

Other Character Studies

A Beautiful Mind
Master & Commander




Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: None of the Above
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older