Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie's plot.

When I heard that a movie version of White Oleander was coming out, my first thought was “Hey, I read that book!” My second thought was “What was that about again?” Now seeing as how I lose my glasses approximately six times per day, this lack of memory is not as foreboding as it may seem. It does mean that the novel (by Janet Fitch) hadn’t imprinted itself indelibly upon my brain. I see this as both a negative and a positive. On the negative side, I didn’t love the novel enough to remember it. On the positive side, I wasn’t going into the movie with a whole cast of my own characters already fully imagined. I figured the two for a wash and went ahead and rented it.

One of the most striking aspects of the movie is the visual on the cover of the four blond principal players. In fact, White Oleander is simply overflowing with blonds. Thematically appropriate, you might say. The movie begins with voice over narration by Astrid (Alison Lohman) as she begins to tell the tale of her complicated relationship with her mother, Ingrid (Michelle Pfeiffer) – a woman whom she both loves and loathes.

We learn (in rather sparse – and I would say unsatisfying – flashback sequences) that Astrid lives with her Ingrid, a mercurial artist with a definite elitist bent. After Ingrid murders her boyfriend (while the flashbacks are spare there is little doubt that she is guilty) and is sent to prison, Astrid begins a dizzying descent into the world of “wards of the state”. Through foster homes and group placements, Ingrid continues to try and assert her hold on Astrid via letters and visits. Passive aggressive, verbally abusive, and very smart, Ingrid basically haunts Astrid from her prison cell, refusing to allow her to move forward into a different life.

Astrid’s placements include two foster homes, the first with Starr (Robin Wright Penn) at the helm. Starr is a strong willed, very religious woman, with a complicated past and an uncompromising nature. This placement is doomed from the get go. The second foster placement is with Claire (Rene Zellweger), a lonely and insecure would be actress with a husband who is rarely home. Claire and Astrid form quite a strong bond. During both of these placements, Ingrid does everything she can to sabotage their success. Astrid’s other two options are group settings, each unique and disturbing in its own right.

Astrid tells us of these things from a time when she is past her childhood, looking back and showing us, basically, what a miserable life she led, what a horrifying person her mother was during this time, and how tough she was to survive at all. My reaction to the movie, unfortunately, is much like my reaction to the book. It was OK.

The four principal female leads all carry their weight, some better than others. Michelle Pfieffer stands out as Ingrid, playing her with nearly sociopathic cunning when it comes to emotional manipulation. I’m not much of a fan of the actress, but must say that this role suits her well (I’m not at all sure that’s a compliment). Alison Lohman as Astrid is fine. She delivers her lines, has appropriate facial expressions, and seems to have a pretty firm grasp on her character. What she doesn’t do is give the character much emotional resonance. Her affect is flat throughout the movie. While this may be typical of a child in her circumstances, and Lohman may have been directed to play the character in this manner, it leads to problems in a film. Without giving the audience some emotions to latch onto, Lohman ends up being very unidimensional, which makes it hard for her to be the sympathetic character she needs to be for the movie to really work. Realistic or not, we need some fear, anger, confusion, something, to make us care about this child’s story in more than a perfunctory way.

Robin Wright Penn as Starr hold up admirably well under the weight of a character with a lot of flaws and baggage. Penn manages to play her as well intentioned but with an edge that makes you a little nervous. Renee Zellweger is, well, annoying. Her Claire is simpering and whiny when she should be fragile and insecure. This is the single performance that I would say is actively unappealing.

The film has some very nice visuals. The blond hair and lots of white in the set design tie in to the “white oleander” title and the cold, calculating nature of Ingrid. This all works very well, a testament to cinematographer Elliot Davis. This movie looks good. The score by Thomas Newman is unremarkable, not a bad thing. Too many scores are intrusive and detract from the film. This one does not, but doesn’t add anything in particular, either. It would be easy to blame the lack of impact of the movie on the screenplay (Mary Agnes Donoghue) and the direction (Peter Kominsky), but as I said, the move is actually OK. What it lacks is that intangible punch that brings a tear to your eye, or makes you angry at a character. The viewer is always on the outside looking in, never locking in and investing in either the characters or the story. I suspect that the source material, combined with some questionable performances and unimaginative direction took some depth from the film that it couldn’t afford to lose.

Overall, White Oleander isn’t a bad film, but it isn’t a very good one, either. Fans of the book or of Michelle Pfieffer may be those most likely to enjoy the movie. Others are likely to find things here that may be appealing, but just don’t have the emotional pull that they should. This would be a pretty good movie of the week, but as a big screen feature, it’s lacking. Three stars for having some good ingredients, but no recommendation for failing to make them gel into a more heartfelt whole.


Recommended: No

Viewing Format: DVD