Review of White Oleander (2002) by Dawdlingpoet — 25 Nov 2021

I thought this was a good drama film - at the start, the turn of events took me by surprise as her mother, Ingrids arrest seemed to come out of the blue, much as it maybe seemed to Astrid at the time. As the story develops, Astrids personality changes and it seems she's dealt some very unfortunate blows - at first she's very clingy towards her newly imprisoned mother but their relationship clearly suffers and she realises that their relationship has never been entirely healthy, what it should have been. As the storyline develops, its quite shocking the extent of manipulation that unfolds and its actually quite powerful to watch.

The acting is very good and the plotline kept me guessing - the musical score is pretty understated and I felt it was emotionally somewhat powerful, though thankfully not too sentimental. Its got quite a haunting feel to it, thanks to the use of music. This is a character driven film and I felt both the main characters, Astrid and Ingrid, were quite complicated and intriguing and as the plotline develops, we learn more about each, through the eyes of Astrid - its a film that will have you second guessing what will happen next. I felt the ending was quite satisfying too.

I'll also add here, for anyone wondering, that the title 'White Oleander' relates in part to method which Ingrid murders Barry. The flower is mentioned in the dialogue during the film. I suppose there's an irony in that the seemingly pretty flower has a deadly aspect to it, which of course could also be said about Ingrid.

Yes, I'm happy to recommend this film as I felt it was quite gritty, a good character driven drama with a decent plotline. The only down side perhaps is that I suppose it was hard to believe some of the plot twists as they seemed so cruel but it certainly left me second guessing the outcome and I felt overall this was a well made film.