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White Oleander (2002)
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Reviews Counted: 128
Fresh: 89
Rotten:39
Average Rating: 6.5/10
Consensus: Strong performances by the lead actresses make White Oleander a compelling female melodrama.
Runtime: 1 hr 50 mins
Genre: Dramas
Theatrical Release: Oct 11, 2002 Wide
Box Office: $16,297,019
Synopsis:
Oleander can be poisonous… So can a mother’s love.
White Oleander tells the unforgettable story of Astrid, a girl whose odyssey through a series of Los Angeles foster homes - each its own universe with its own laws, its own dangers, its...
Oleander can be poisonous… So can a mother’s love.
White Oleander tells the unforgettable story of Astrid, a girl whose odyssey through a series of Los Angeles foster homes - each its own universe with its own laws, its own dangers, its own hard lessons to be learned - becomes a redeeming journey of self-discovery. Based on the acclaimed best-selling novel by Janet Fitch, White Oleander follows a young woman’s journey through hardship and loss to maturity, joy and true independence.
After her uncompromising but seductive mother Ingrid (MICHELLE PFEIFFER) kills her boyfriend for abandoning her, fifteen-year-old Astrid (ALISON LOHMAN) witnesses her mother's arrest. It’s an event that will change the course of both their lives.
Suddenly, young Astrid is on her own.
Shuttled through a series of foster homes (and foster mothers including ROBIN WRIGHT PENN and RENÉE ZELLWEGER), Astrid struggles to master the techniques she needs if she's to survive the unyielding and often harsh world she is thrust into. Astrid tries desperately to forge her own identity within her ever-changing environment. From behind bars, Ingrid’s powerful influence is the only constant in Astrid's life. For good, and for bad…
In the three years that mark her passage from child to adult, Astrid must learn the value of independence and courage, rage and forgiveness, love and survival, to earn her freedom from the past.
Starring: Michelle Pfeiffer, Alison Lohman, Robin Wright Penn, Renee Zellweger
Starring: Michelle Pfeiffer, Alison Lohman, Robin Wright Penn, Renee Zellweger, Billy Connolly, Patrick Fugit, Cole Hauser, Noah Wyle, Svetlana Efremova
Director: Peter Kosminsky
Director: Peter Kosminsky
Screenwriter: Mary Agnes Donoghue
Producer: John Wells, Hunt Lowry
Composer: Thomas Newman
Studio: Warner Bros.
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Reviews for White Oleander
Lohman appears in nearly every scene and gives an assured, sympathetic performance as Astrid.
The daughter’s story is often haunting, but Peter Kosminsky's film . . . comes unglued because the mother is the stock psychotic villainess of countless Hollywood films.
Like the titular flower of its title, “White Oleander”, will sting your senses and turn you cerulean with feeling as its Petals of gorgeousness, and stems of the finest celluloid work its way into your system.
Although its plot suffers from some plausibility issues, it shows that Kosminsky’s style is certainly evolving into something worth attention.
This soapy gem can be overlooked by the star-studded element that enhances the feminine message of misplaced empowerment. White Oleander is a cinematic flower that could use some more blooming but the scent is still pleasing enough to acknowledge
No matter how restrained the direction or unsentimental the performances ... there is no escaping the semi-trashy but oh-so-life- affirming ring of the plot.
If the screen version of White Oleander was an Olympic event, it's hard to tell which of the movie's four actresses would end up winning the gold.
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