White Oleander (2002)

Director:

Peter Kosminsky

Writers (WGA):

Janet Fitch (novel)
Mary Agnes Donoghue (screenplay)

Release Date:

11 October 2002 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Where does a mother end and a daughter begin?

Plot:

A teenager journeys through a series of foster homes after her mother goes to prison for committing a crime of passion.

Plot Keywords:

Foster Home | Prison | California | Poison | Letter

Awards:

3 wins & 4 nominations

Cast

Amy Aquino	...	Miss Martinez
John Billingsley	...	Paramedic
Elisa Bocanegra	...	Girl in Fight
Darlene Bohorquez	...	Prisoner
Solomon Burke Jr.	...	Guard
Scott Allan Campbell	...	Bill Greenway
Sam Catlin	...	Teacher
Debra Christofferson	...	Marlena
Billy Connolly	...	Barry Kolker
Marc Donato	...	Davey Thomas
Svetlana Efremova	...	Rena Gruschenka
Patrick Fugit	...	Paul Trout
Vernon Haas	...	Guard
Sean Happy	...	Dirt Bike Boyfriend
Cole Hauser	...	Ray

Also Known As:

Weißer Oleander (Germany)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for mature thematic elements concerning dysfunctional relationships, drug content, language, sexuality and violence.

Runtime:

109 min

Country:

USA | Germany

Language:

English

Colour:

Colour (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Portugal:M/12 | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Brazil:16 | Canada:PG | Denmark:11 | Finland:K-11 | Germany:12 | Iceland:12 | Netherlands:AL | Norway:11 | Peru:14 | Philippines:PG-13 | Singapore:PG | Sweden:11 | UK:12A (original rating) | UK:12 (video rating) (2004) | USA:PG-13

Filming Locations:

Airport Courthouse - 11701 S. La Cienega Blvd., Ladera Heights, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Gaylord Films

Trivia:

The scene that Renée Zellweger's character Claire shares from her career in film is a clip from The Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1994) which was one of Zellweger's first movies.

Goofs:

Continuity: Astrid says her father left when she was two years old when she talks with Ray, but toward the end of the movie, Ingrid tells Astrid her father left when she was six months old.

Quotes:

Astrid: Everybody asks why I started at the end and worked back to the beginning, the reason is simple, I couldn't understand the beginning until I had reached the end. There were too many pieces of the puzzle missing, too much you would never tell. I could sell these things...

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Game K N B: (2006-11-29)" (2006)

Soundtrack:

Bang Bang

It's been a while since I've seen as good a job at depicting the effects of a strong but flawed mother on her strong but impressionable daughter.

"White Oleander," adapted from Janet Fitch's best-selling novel, is hard and edgy about the bond between single mother and daughter, letting us see the reality of a strong artistic mother (Michelle Pfeiffer) tyrannizing her gifted daughter (Alison Lohman). After murdering her lover, mom goes to prison and daughter goes on an odyssey of self discovery in foster families, reminiscent of Burt Lancaster's episodic journey in John Cheever's `The Swimmer.'

In the first home, Robin Wright Penn's fundamental Christian presides over a frenetic household but reveals the sweet chaos of people who really love each other. In the next home, vulnerable actress, foster mom Renee Zellweger brings intimate caring to Lohman at an emotional price. Russian rag picker Svetlana Efremova brings hard-nosed business into Lohman's sights to complete an education of survival. Lohman finds loving understanding with Patrick Fugit, another artist in her life, but one without an agenda.

It's been a while since I've seen as good a job at depicting the effects of a strong but flawed mother on her strong but impressionable daughter. `Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood' tried with Ellen Burstyn as mother and Sandra Bullock as daughter, but the film failed to engage beyond a few shouts and eccentric southerners. `Oleander' has a brilliant artist manipulator teaching her daughter to be independent, even cold, to survive, yet the daughter has a need to be loved that draws her to older men, Christianity, and rebellion. Her psychic search for her absent father serves only to exacerbate the matter.

Pfeiffer does her best work here-- beautiful even in prison, she plays an ugly soul capable of the worst emotional tyranny over her sensitive, intelligent daughter, played with heart-breaking insight by Lohman. I was pleased with Kirsten Dunst last year in "crazy/beautiful." Just substitute Alison Lohman this year.