White Oleander Movie Review 2002

Pfieffer plays against type as an ice cold mother who controls her daughter Astrid's (Lohman) life from the prison where she's serving a life sentence for murder. Astrid is forced into an odyssey through the foster care system, where she is taken in by a string of damaged foster moms, including a born-again ex-stripper (Wright Penn), a needy ex-actress (Zellweger) and a greedy Russian ragpicker (Efremova). Astrid changes her looks as well as her psyche for each of these faux-mothers, but finally learns to break away and become her own person with some help from fellow foster child Paul (Fugit). The performances are good across the board, but director Kosminsky seems more interested in making the all-star cast of actresses look good then giving them an interesting story to tell.

Distribution

Warner Home Video, Inc., 5775 Linder Canyon Rd., Westlake Village, CA 91362, URL: http://whv.warnerbros.com, Remarks: Does not handle retail queries from consumers; contact your local video distributor.

Available on VHS, DVD
Running time 110 minutes.
Originally from United States.

Cast and Crew

Genres

Women in Prison, Teen Angst, Monster Moms, Coming of Age, Homicide, Art & Artists, Killer Spouses

Screenplay

Mary Agnes Donoghue

Cast

Alison Lohman, Michelle Pfeiffer, Robin Wright Penn, Renee Zellweger, Patrick Fugit, Billy Connolly, Cole Hauser, Noah Wyle, Amy Aquino, Svetlana Efremova

Cinematography

Elliot Davis

Director

Peter Kosminsky

Music

Thomas Newman

Other

Steve Bowerman, Debra Baum, Ann Kline, Chris Ridsdale, Anthony Rivero Stabley, Susie De Santo, Donald Graham Burt

Producer

John Wells, Hunt Lowry, Pandora Film, Warner Bros.