Praising the performances in Oleander comes easy. Answering questions about character motivations isn’t so simple.
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10/10/02
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White Oleander (2002)
69
%
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Reviews Counted:130
Fresh:90
Rotten:40
Average Rating:6.5/10
Consensus: Strong performances by the lead actresses make White Oleander a compelling female melodrama.
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... [More]
Starring: Michelle Pfeiffer, Alison Lohman, Robin Wright Penn, Renee Zellweger
Director: Peter Kosminsky
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Reviews for White Oleander
... newcomer Lohman really is the one shining brightest through all the soap suds sprayed by “White Oleander.”
10/10/02
Features another Oprah heroine...who earns nobility and respect through contrived suffering.
10/10/02
Impressively unflappable and natural, 23-year-old Lohman ... holds the whole plot together skillfully.
10/10/02
Top CriticA Dickensian story recast for the age of Oprah...well-meaning but episodic and ultimately pat.
10/10/02
“White Oleander,” the movie, is akin to a Reader’s Digest condensed version of the source material.
10/09/02
Lohman adapts to the changes required of her, but the actress and director Peter Kosminsky never get the audience to break through the wall her character erects
10/09/02
An Oprah Book of the Month gets the Lifetime Movie of the Week treatment in Peter Kosminsky's consistently hysterical White Oleander.
10/08/02
(A) Hollywood sheen bedevils the film from the very beginning...(but) Lohman's moist, deeply emotional eyes shine through this bogus veneer...
10/08/02
Ultimately sacrifices nuance to tidy epiphanies about personal growth.
10/08/02
No review available.
10/08/02
For what it is, Kosminsky's picture is polished and effective. If only the movie had taken more risks or possessed a keener edge...
10/08/02
Top CriticLike the eponymous flower, Pfeiffer's Ingrid is beautiful and deadly, generating enough poison to be remembered at Oscar time.
10/07/02
A marvelous performance by Allison Lohman as an identity-seeking foster child.
10/06/02
Instead of characters with dialog, it has a bunch of very talented actors delivering speeches to each other.
10/01/02
While Wright Penn and Zellweger create equally brilliant, gem-like performances, the movie truly belongs to Alison Lohman.
09/30/02
The melodramatic machinations of Peter Kosminsky's well-intentioned chick flick White Oleander don't exactly come as surprise or a disappointment, but it ultimately fails to live up to promise of its all-star cast.
09/17/02
Eschews easy sentimentality and presents the women as complex individuals.
09/15/02
Graced by several splendid performances and clean direction by Peter Kosminsky that shrewdly chooses to ignore most melodramatic impulses.
09/11/02
Top CriticNever rising above routine episodic storytelling, White Oleander nonetheless retains something of its source novel's ravaged emotional surface and cool, observant manner.
09/10/02
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