Review: White Oleander (2002)
Steve Rhodes
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2002 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): * 1/2
WHITE OLEANDER doesn't have any characters. Instead of characters with dialog,
it has a bunch of very talented actors delivering speeches to each other. The
sort of things that they say -- "Loneliness is the human condition." and "Love
humiliates you. Hatred cradles you." -- would make nice contributions for
pretty little compendiums of homilies, but they aren't how human beings
converse.
The story, which stars Michelle Pfeiffer as a murderer named Ingrid Magnussen,
is about people who are prone to dangerously dysfunctional relationships.
Ingrid is a free-spirited and egocentric artist who had a child, Astrid (Alison
Lohman), as the off-spring of one of her disastrous relationships. Now an older
teen, Astrid is busy following in her mother's footsteps when it comes to art
and to guys -- that is until her mother is sent to prison for basically the rest
of her life. Astrid's life then goes into an unbelievable death spiral as she
moves from one ridiculous foster home to another.
In one of Astrid's clichéd abodes, her new temporary mother, Starr (Robin Wright
Penn), is "Bible thumping trailer trash." When Starr isn't lecturing Astrid on
the need for accepting Jesus as her personal savior, she is sleeping with a
married man, drinking, smoking and shooting at Astrid.
Meanwhile back in prison, Ingrid is getting lovelier by the day. She tells her
daughter that the reason for this is, "Prisons are great for me. There's no
hypocrisy here. It's kill or be killed."
The maudlin movie has more acts than you can count. In some of them, Patrick
Fugit, who was so brilliant as the star of ALMOST FAMOUS, appears as a poorly
written character called Paul Trout, a boy who'd love to be Astrid's boyfriend,
but, since Paul is a warm and compassionate person, you know that they won't
really get together until the end, if at all. Fugit is completely wasted in
this nearly vacuous role.
Don't even get me started on all the unbelievable twists in the plot.
WHITE OLEANDER runs 1:49. It is rated PG-13 for "mature thematic elements
concerning dysfunctional relationships, drug content, language, sexuality and
violence" and would acceptable for teenagers.
The film, which played at the Toronto film festival, opens in the United States
on Friday, October 11, 2002. In the Silicon Valley, it will be showing at the
AMC theaters and the Century theaters.
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Laura Clifford
--------------
At the age of 15, Astrid (Alison Lohman) is thrust from the safety of
her single mother's shadow to find herself as she tries on the substitute
mothers of foster care. Astrid also learns a hard lesson - that the woman
she felt safe with, Ingrid (Michelle Pfeiffer), can continue to be dangerous
even after being imprisoned for killing her boyfriend with poisonous
"White Oleander."
Janet Fitch's novel became a phenomenon after it became an Oprah book club
choice, but the richly textured, densely characterized novel is given the
Cliff Notes treatment by screenwriter Mary Agnes Donoghue ("Beaches").
The major points are made, but one's never given enough time to respond
or know the characters to become emotionally involved.
We meet Ingrid when her daughter finds her sitting on the edge of a roof,
insisting Astrid join her. We're given the hint of Ingrid playing hard
to get, then capitulating to Barry (Billy Connolly, "Mrs. Brown," in a
role that barely allows us to even see his face). Ingrid's dragged from
her home by police, Astrid's picked up by children's services, then sees
her mother sentenced to life in prison - whoa! What happened and how did it
happen so fast? (We'll learn in flashbacks, but the transitions are
unrealistic and the pre-prison mother-daughter relationship is mostly
told via Lohman's clipped narration.)
First stop is born again, ex-stripper Starr (Robin Wright Penn) who takes
in foster kids for the extra income and God points. Soon Astrid's dressing
cheaply and sporting a crucifix, which mama mocks during a prison visit.
Confused, Astrid listens to mother, and in so doing, unwittingly slides into
a seduction of Ray (Cole Hauser, "Hart's War"). Starr's jealousy leads her
back to the bottle, her makeshift family crumbling apart and Astrid is
ejected in a surprising manner.
An interlude at a state run boarding school further toughens up Astrid.
She chops off her hair with a knife and threatens the girl who jumped her
with it. She also meets Paul Trout (Patrick Fugit, "Almost Famous"), an
aspiring artist who offers love at a deeper level, but she's whisked way
to another foster house before he becomes home. This time she finds another
kind of love with Claire (Renee Zellweger), a lonely, out-of-work actress who
becomes a best girlfriend. But Astrid turns out to be a Band-Aid for Claire's
troubled marriage and shaky mental health and another tragedy ensues. Astrid
finally gains her independence and finds her true self with Rena (Svetlana
Efremova, "K-19: The Widowmaker"), a Russian in love with capitalism, even
though she doesn't want what Rena offers.
Each stop exposes Astrid to not only a completely different lifestyle
set against the varying landscapes of L.A., but to character traits she
can pick and choose from as she attempts to shape herself. Costume and
makeup nicely reflect the looks of the adult women back onto the
impressionable
teen, until she veers from Rena's wild style into a dark, bohemian goth
look that's the opposite of her mother's pastel beauty. Art director
Anthony Rivero Stabley creates distinct environs for each woman as well.
Each of the adult actresses paint their characters well, but only Pfeiffer
and Zellweger are given enough time to show subtle inner psychologies,
using more than broad strokes. Pfeiffer is perfectly cast as the cool beauty
who loses it when her ego isn't fed by the men she claims to disdain.
Pfeiffer makes the transition from flirt to determined killer to hardened
jailbird believable, her initial delicacy gradually hardening into lean
sinew, her feline grace held in check by shackles. Zellweger is all cheerful
encouragement and zest for life until Astrid begins to question husband Mark's
(Noah Wyle) frequent absences. Zellweger transitions into a fearful
self-doubt we can tell she's visited before. (Pfeiffer's actually scary
acting against Zellweger during a prison visit - she eviscerates the
other character with laser beam eyes.)
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. Fugit makes for a strong, warm presence in the film. The final
scene, repeated but extended from the opening, makes a concept which
barely worked in the written word silly in its visualization. The score
by Thomas Newman ("The Horse Whisperer") is comprised of a type of wistful
piano playing that's been well overused.
"White Oleander" is a solid adaptation of terrific novel, but it doesn't
get to a deep enough end of its ocean of pain.
B-
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Robin Clifford
Beautiful, cold, artistic Ingrid Magnussen (Michelle Pfeiffer) is not a woman to
be taken lightly. When her boyfriend jilts her for another woman she sees no
problem with murdering him. But, her decision to commit mayhem gets her 35 years
to life and her teenaged daughter Astrid (Alison Lohman) is suddenly left in the
care of the state in "White Oleander."
Janet Fitch's novel, on which the film is based, is an epic coming-of-age story
that follows Astrid, after her mother's arrest and conviction, as she is
shuffled from one foster home or institution to the next. It is a richly
structured story with interesting, fully developed characters, especially
Astrid, and had a broad appeal. Hell, a story about a teenage girl that I, a
guy, raved about is an accomplished, appealing work.
"White Oleander," the movie, is akin to a Reader's Digest condensed version of
the source material. Scripter Mary Agnes Donoghue does a fair job in capturing
the characters that surround Astrid, from her mother to the first foster care
giver, Starr (Robin Wright Penn), to the vulnerable, dependent Claire (Renee
Zellweger) to the outrageous Rena (Svetlana Efremova) who runs a half-way house
for teenaged girls. Donoghue covers each episode in a glossed over manner that
gives the essence of each story chapter but does not delve too deeply into any
of them.
The acting is uniformly solid from all the players that surround newcomer Lohman
at the film's center. Michelle Pfeiffer embodies the brittle beauty of Ingrid, a
woman who takes pleasure in hurting others, ostensibly to protect Astrid. Helmer
Peter Kosminsky gets a manipulative perf from Pfeiffer that uses the actress's
beauty, and her character's bitchiness, perfectly. Unfortunately, the dynamics
of the relationship between Ingrid and Astrid so beautifully detailed in the
book receives only surface treatment here. It is a fine, small performance by
Pfeiffer.
Renee Zellweger best captures the vulnerability of Claire, an out of work
actress in a troubled marriage who uses foster child Astrid as a shield to
protect her from the loneliness in her life. Claire is a tragic figure and her
sequence in the film best approximates the book. Robin Wright Penn gives just
the right note as born-again floozy Starr, a former bimbo beauty who takes
Astrid in but soon suspects her ward of having relations with live-in boyfriend
Ray (Cole Hauser). Again, the sequence has a perfunctory feel that leaves out
much of the books emotional layers. Svetlana Efremova, as money-grubbing Russian
émigré Rena, has fun in her slight role.
Alison Lohman does an okay job as central figure Astrid but is more reactionary
to the events around her than a participant. The pretty teen has the necessary
good looks (although, she more resembles Wright Penn than Pfeiffer) and gives a
fair perf first time out. The cursory adaptation of the story keeps Astrid at
arm's length throughout most of the film, with one exception. Patrick Fugit, as
Astrid's soul mate Paul Trout, reps the one un-presupposing figure in the film.
He likes Astrid for what she is and makes no demands as he genuinely loves and
cares for the girl. Fugit comes across more sympathetically than any of the
other male characters, though all do their best to match their alter egos from
the book.
Techs are sound and helmer Kosminsky moves his actors around with a sure hand,
belying his limited directing experience (1992's "Wuthering Heights").
If I hadn't read and enjoyed Fitch's novel so much, I may have been a little
less critical of "White Oleander." Still, it's an actor's film with the story
told in a series of lightly drawn chapters. Like Reader's Digest, it tells the
story but pushes the meat and emotion of Astrid's plight to the side. I give it
a C+.
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Jon Popick
"We Put the SIN in Cinema"
© Copyright 2002 Planet Sick-Boy. All Rights Reserved.
White Oleander is the latest screen adaptation of a novel anointed by
Oprah's Book Club. Since Oprah's favorite books are generally ignored en
masse once they hit the multiplex, I'm not sure why Hollywood continues to
crank them out. Oleander isn't something I'd strongly recommend to anyone,
but by comparison, it seems like an awardworthy epic next to a movie like
Where the Heart Is. Still, the reason it succeeds has little to do with the
story - it's all about the acting, girlfriend.
The current record-holder for MPAA warning length, Oleander is about a
15-year-old girl named Astrid Magnussen (newcomer Alison Lohman) whose life
plays out like something you'd witness on a daytime talk show. Instead of
having toothless morons scream, "Girl, you need to show yo' mama some
respeck!," Oleander takes the higher road in its portrayal of Astrid, the
only child of a respected artist named Ingrid (Michelle Pfeiffer, I Am Sam),
who, shortly after the film opens, is tried and convicted of killing her
boyfriend (Billy Connolly, Still Crazy). Foregoing a lengthy trial scene,
we see only the sentencing (she gets 35 years), and before we know it, poor
little Astrid is being whisked off to the first of what will be a slew of
temporary homes in the Los Angeles area.
First stop is the pink nightmare that is the home of Starr (Robin Wright
Penn, The Pledge), a born-again former stripper who must have landed in
Southern California via the trashiest Florida trailer parks. Trouble
ensues, and Astrid is shipped off to an institution, then to the home of an
infertile Hollywood couple (Renée Zellweger and Noah Wyle), and, finally,
into the clutches of a Russian-immigrant-turned-whacked-out-capitalist
(Svetlana Efremova). Attaching herself to anyone who gives her the
slightest bit of attention, Astrid has a different persona each time she
visits her mother in jail. This is an awful development for the
free-spirited Ingrid, who had previously tried to instill in Astrid her own
self-righteous version of right and wrong.
Like the eponymous flower, Pfeiffer's Ingrid is beautiful and deadly,
generating enough poison to be remembered at Oscar time. Her prison scenes
with Astrid are Oleander's highlights, even though they usually leave our
protagonist devastated after each visit. Everything else is very episodic
and doesn't work quite as well storywise, despite fine performances from
everyone. If you think about it, Oleander is kind of an actresses' dream
film. Every character besides Astrid is terribly flawed - beyond the point
of being saved by Oprah's Dr. Phil, even - that we end up not caring a lick
about them. And that just makes us root even harder for Astrid.
The underlying message seems to be that men are just no damn good. Trust
'em, and they'll fuck around behind your back. Kill 'em, and they'll get
you imprisoned. Astrid doesn't really find her way until she's placed in a
foster home sans father figure. She is keenly aware that the mere presence
of men is enough to ruin everything (check out her face when Noah Wyle shows
up). Could her experience really have been that bad, or is this just how
she remembered it (Astrid narrates, implying everything we see has happened
in the past)? Even her relationship with Paul (Patrick Fugit, Almost
Famous), a fellow foster kid with artistic ambitions, is messed up because
he's too much like she is, and Astrid believes she's damaged goods. And if
we learn anything else in addition to the Men Are Bad theme, it's that
California needs to crack down on their foster-parent approval process.
Oleander is directed by Peter Kosminsky, who, in addition to helming a lot
of British documentaries, made a great version of Wuthering Heights with
Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche in 1992. His camerawork, along with
cinematographer Elliot Davis (I Am Sam), adds a unique perspective to the
film that makes it more like an arthouse offering than a Hollywood
blockbuster. Also helping that cause is quirky editing (Chris Risdale) and
a very likable score (Thomas Newman, the Six Feet Under theme guy) full of
quiet segues that wouldn't seem out of place on the Traffic soundtrack, or a
NIN record.
1:49 - PG-13 for mature thematic elements concerning dysfunctional
relationships, drug content, language, sexuality and violence
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