Details
Movie Description
WHITE OLEANDER, the Janet Fitch novel made famous on Oprah's Book Club, is the tale of an intense and toxic mother-daughter relationship, coupled with a look at the fundamentally skewed U.S. foster care system. When the beautiful photographer Ingrid Magnusson (Michelle Pfeiffer) is imprisoned for allegedly murdering a philandering boyfriend, her daughter Astrid (Alison Lohman) does her best to survive a string of foster homes where natural adolescent mistakes turn into land mines. Her first stop is the home of a born-again Christian, Starr (Robin Wright Penn, who is so good in this part she's physically unrecognizable.) Next, she is sent to the home of a clinically depressed actress, Claire Richards (Renee Zellweger, whose natural effervescence is delightfully disturbing here.) Claire uses Astrid to fill the void left by a roaming husband (Noah Wyle). Astrid juggles her list of changing homes with visits to Mommy Dearest in prison, while suffering flashbacks of the alleged murder.
WHITE OLEANDER, the first feature for U.K. television director Peter Kosminsky, is stark and brooding. Its simultaneously awful and lovely tone is reminiscent of AMERICAN BEAUTY or THE ICE STORM.
Film Notes
DVD Features:
Region 1
Snap Case
Full Frame - 1.33
Single Side - Dual Layer
Audio:
Dolby Digital 5.1 - English
Dolby Digital 5.1 - French
Additional Release Material:
Deleted Scenes
Featurettes - 1. Bravo Special - The Making of White Oleander
2. HBO First Look - The Journey of White Oleander
Industry Reviews
"...WHITE OLEANDER is a superbly acted from top to bottom. Ms. Pfeiffer, giving the most complex screen performance of her career, makes her Olympian seductress at once irresistible and diabolical..."
New York Times - Stephen Holden (10/11/2002)
"...It's a tribute to the strength of the book's conception and the good work that's gone into it that it retains the power to haunt us..."
Los Angeles Times - Kenneth Turan (10/11/2002)
"...Michelle Pfeiffer is icily powerful..."
USA Today - Claudia Puig (10/11/2002)
"...Kosminsky shows real command of his tech resources, and has an eye for details of L.A. that perhaps only an outsider can bring..."
Variety - Robert Koehler (09/09/2002)
"...WHITE OLEANDER eschews easy sentimentality and presents the women as complex individuals..."
Box Office - Susan Green (11/01/2002)
"...Lohman is indelibly moving....[Pfeiffer] does some of the best work of her career....Robin Wright Penn also gives a terrific performance..."
Movieline - Stephen Farber
"...Robin Wright Penn brings believable, unguarded fury to the role..."
Entertainment Weekly - Lisa Schwarzbaum (10/18/2002)
"...[With] pleasingly subdued photography...[and a] nicely shaded approach to characterisation..."
Sight and Sound - Edward Lawrenson (12/01/2003)
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