White Oleander review

Based on the best-selling novel by Janet Fitch, White Oleander is the complex tale of how love can suffocate and kill just as effectively as any gun and is an acting tour de force for the predominantly female cast.

When artist Ingrid Magnussen (Pfeiffer) is imprisoned for murdering her casual boyfriend, it is her impressionable teenage daughter Astrid (Lohman) who is left destitute by her mother's absence. Being underage, she is forced into the California Care system and is soon fostered out to a series of needy parents.

The vulnerable Astrid, searching for a new source of affection, finds that she is seldom a happy addition to the homes she is placed in. While she struggles to come to terms with her loss, she if forced to grow up quickly from the sheltered, creative world she had hitherto known.

Whenever it looks as if things might work out OK for her, particularly with actress Claire (Zellweger), a few well chosen words from her mother on the inside put her back to square one. Living proof that a child can be smothered by a mother's love.

Gradually Astrid is forced to learn how to protect herself and to steel herself against pain and disappointment. To this end she must try to break free from her possessive mother and live the life that she deserves. But does she have enough willpower?

It is the standout performance from Alison Lohman that really makes this film. Her haunting portrayal of a young woman torn in every direction clearly marks her out as a star of the future. She is supported by the ever-dependable Renee Zellweger and Michelle Pfeiffer to make a thought provoking film that will linger long in the memory. The only gripe would be that the ending is just too neat. Everyone knows that life doesn't always work out like that.