Product Description

White Oleander chronicles the life of Astrid (Alison Lohman), a young teenager who journeys through a series of foster homes after her mother (Michelle Pfeiffer) goes to prison for committing a crime of passion. Set adrift in the world, Astrid struggles to become her own person while coming to terms with the challenges of living life on her own.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10659 in DVD
• Brand: Warner Brothers
• Released on: 2003-03-11
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Letterboxed, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, French
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, French
• Dubbed in: French
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 109 minutes

Features

• White Oleander chronicles the life of Astrid (Alison Lohman), a young teenager who journeys through a series of foster homes after her mother (Michelle Pfeiffer) goes to prison for committing a crime of passion. Set adrift in the world, Astrid struggles to become her own person while coming to terms with the challenges of living life on her own.Running Time: 110 min. Format: DVD MOVIE Genre:&

Amazon.com
Fine performances and sensitive direction keep White Oleander from being a routine tearjerker. Adapted from Janet Fitch's bestseller (an Oprah's Book Club selection), this hard-edged drama boasts a reputable cast, but 23-year-old newcomer Alison Lohman steals the film from her A-list costars. As a troubled teen whose controlling mother (Michelle Pfeiffer) has been jailed for murder, Lohman is the film's heart and soul, bouncing between foster homes and rushing toward independence in a world of disappointing adults. After surviving episodic stints with a trashy born-again Christian (Robin Wright Penn), a suicidal housewife (Renée Zellweger), and a Russian immigrant (Zvetlana Efremova), she finds comfort with another outcast (Patrick Fugit), leaving behind the mothers who failed her. Making his feature directorial debut, British stage and TV veteran Peter Kosminsky creates a showcase for formidable actresses, each given moments to shine. White Oleander lacks the emotional depth of Fitch's novel, but it speaks volumes about the delicate balance of freedom and responsibility. --Jeff Shannon

From The New Yorker
Does anyone know what happened to the Michelle Pfeiffer who made "The Fabulous Baker Boys" and "Married to the Mob"? She seems to have disappeared, taking with her a sly sense of fun, leaving the new-model Pfeiffer to concentrate on earnest empowerment studies like "Dangerous Minds," and now this. Peter Kosminsky's film, adapted from the novel by Janet Fitch, stars Pfeiffer as a Los Angeles artist who kills a man and goes to prison, a place she enjoys for its clarity of purpose, and from where she urges her teen-age daughter Astrid (Alison Lohman) to be herself at all costs. In practice, this involves making life hell for any foster parent who has the guts, or the kindness, to take Astrid on. The film is luminous to look at and hard to listen to, as great chunks of whole-meal fiction are read out in voice-over. There are contributions from Robin Wright Penn and Renée Zellweger, but the movie belongs to Lohman, who must be praying that it will lead to roles in which she will be allowed to smile. -Anthony Lane
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Triumph
This is one of very few examples of how a great book can be made into an equally good movie.

Screenplay is brilliant, story line is very closely kept with the book, which is always a must contrary to popular beliefs. Directing is excellent, casting even better. Watching these actors playing these characters almost made me forget that I was watching the movie and not the real life. Watching Astrid shad her innocence and step into womanhood through hardship and deception was as magnificent to watch as it was painful. And should I even speak of Michelle Pfeifer? She has an Oscar written all over her for that performance. Her glares alone deserve a recognition. Lets not forget excellent performances by Renee Zelwegger and Robin Wright Penn.

For all those (man) who think this is a chick flick (much like I thought before I watched it) it is not. This is a story of love, deception, transformation and letting go. A story about how all of us have to find our own path in life regardless of obstacles.

All filmmakers should take notes, because this is how you tell a story. Bravo

Memorable Performances in a Highly Dramatized Movie
White Oleander, featuring Michelle Pfeiffer and Alison Lohman, is the movie based on the book by Janet Fitch. Viewers of the Oprah Winfrey daytime television show and readers will recall that this book was one of Oprah�s book club selections. Now this compelling and disturbing book has been brought to the silver screen in what many viewers will agree was an intriguing and well-crafted movie. And rarely, if ever in my opinion, has a movie been so finely done or as faithful to the book as was done in this movie. In addition the cast was well chosen and the performances are creatively superb, handling a most difficult subject.

Michelle Pfeiffer, in the lead role, plays Ingrid Magnusson, a single parent and artist who is raising her adolescent daughter Astrid played by Alison Lohman. Ingrid is an incredibly selfish woman with a Bohemian lifestyle who treats Astrid more like a friend than her child. While Ingrid�s life is dictated by her passions and whims, Astrid is merely a bystander to the lifestyle Ingrid dictates for them. When she is angered by the rejection of her current lover and while Astrid sits in their car, Ingrid poisons her lover with the inner juice of a white oleander plant ultimately killing this man. When Ingrid is arrested by the police, Astrid is removed from their home by social services and becomes a ward of the state. Now the focus of the movie shifts from Astrid as Ingrid�s daughter and work in progress to Astrid, a child who will become much too familiar with the foster care system in Southern California. Unfortunately for Astrid, the foster homes she stays in are less than happy situations for her and she also must contend with Ingrid�s views of her foster mothers as she goes from home to home, learning more about the seamier side of life than any child should have to learn at this pivotal time in her life. And all the while Astrid remains loyal to Ingrid as she continues to be subjected to her when she visits Ingrid in prison.

This is a movie populated mainly by an all female cast. Michelle Pfeiffer plays Ingrid with a mixture of anger and compassion about her situation and Astrid�s circumstances. And both Renee Zellwegger and Robin Wright Penn shine as two very different types of foster mothers who greatly influence Astrid�s life. But if the movie belongs to one actor it is Astrid played by Alison Lohman who shines as the confused young woman forced to face life as an adult way before her time. And the last scene as Astrid becomes an artist in her own right and creates valises filled with the faces and objects of her life which remains with the viewer long after the movie ends.

I found this to be an excellent movie especially since I read the book. The director and other associates are to be commended for tastefully presenting a difficult subject to the audience in such a fine manner. One is left with a feeling of hope that Astrid, despite her early difficulties will succeed as an adult.

Good and hard
This was an intense, powerful extraordinarily well done movie that is so good it hurts. Think Sophie's choice. It's about a teen-aged daughter whose mother gets herself sent to jail for a long time, leaving the daughter to drift from foster home to foster home. We see a sweet kid exposed to situations that turn her hard, angry, jaded. And while we watch this we know that this happens every day, every minute to kids all over the world, millions of them.

Michelle Pfeifer is amazing as the self absorbed, possibly borderline possibly sociopathic mother who tries to manipulate her daughter remotely, from jail. Alison Lohman plays the teenage daughter. She does a great job and shows terrific promise as a versatile actor. With her next film, Matchstick men, directed by Ridley Scott, she's off to a great start, with a good half dozen films already under her belt.

This is a great movie, but don't expect to walk out feeling uplifted. Try feeling like you've been hit in the stomach. Still, it is worth seeing, really worth it.