White Oleander

Date of release: 20th February 2003

Synopsis:

Oleander can be poisonous... So can a mother's love.

White Oleander tells the unforgettable story of Astrid, a girl whose odyssey through a series of Los Angeles foster homes - each its own universe with its own laws, its own dangers, its own hard lessons to be learned - becomes a redeeming journey of self-discovery. Based on the acclaimed best-selling novel by Janet Fitch, White Oleander follows a young woman's journey through hardship and loss to maturity, joy and true independence.

After her uncompromising but seductive mother Ingrid (MICHELLE PFEIFFER) kills her boyfriend for abandoning her, fifteen-year-old Astrid (ALISON LOHMAN) witnesses her mother's arrest. It's an event that will change the course of both their lives.

Suddenly, young Astrid is on her own.

Shuttled through a series of foster homes (and foster mothers including ROBIN WRIGHT PENN and RENEE ZELLWEGER), Astrid struggles to master the techniques she needs if she's to survive the unyielding and often harsh world she is thrust into. Astrid tries desperately to forge her own identity within her ever-changing environment. From behind bars, Ingrid's powerful influence is the only constant in Astrid's life. For good, and for badÖ

In the three years that mark her passage from child to adult, Astrid must learn the value of independence and courage, rage and forgiveness, love and survival, to earn her freedom from the past.

a John Wells Production; White Oleander, starring Alison Lohman, Robin Wright Penn, Michelle Pfeiffer and RenÈe Zellweger. Directed by Peter Kosminsky from a screenplay by Mary Agnes Donoghue and based on the best-selling novel by Janet Fitch, White Oleander.

Production notes:

When producer John Wells received an early copy of Janet Fitch's novel, White Oleander, he read it in one night and immediately optioned the film rights. "The characters were beautifully drawn," comments Wells, a renowned writer and director as well as a producer and one of the creative forces behind ER, The West Wing and Third Watch. "It's an extraordinarily well-written book with indelible characters and a very uplifting message. I found myself fully involved in Astridís journey."

Wells was impressed by how the story illustrates a universal theme about growing up, weathering the myriad experiences that help define us as individuals and establish an identity apart from our parents. "Whether or not we experience the kind of adversity that Astrid encounters, one way or another this is a passage we must all navigate as adolescents," says Wells. "Part of becoming an adult is the realization that our parents have a great many of their own failings and frustrations, that they are human and not omnipotent. Their love, though genuine, may be as imperfect as they are, and we have to accept that for what it is if we're to move forward."

Within two weeks of its publication, White Oleander was chosen by Oprah Winfrey as the May 1999 selection for her book club and it rose to top-five positions on the bestseller lists of newspapers around the country including The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post and USA Today. The book touched readers who identified with its life-affirming message. As of August 2002, there are more than 1.5 million copies in print. White Oleander has also become an international success, appearing on best-seller lists in the U.K. and Holland, with rights sold in 25 countries.

While the screenplay was being prepared and Wells was still considering how to adapt the story visually, a friend sent him a tape of Warriors, an award-winning 1999 BBC miniseries about peacekeepers in Bosnia, directed by Peter Kosminsky. Impressed by the directorís deft and sensitive handling of the difficult subject and his ability to weave together narrative threads from multiple points of view, Wells felt that Kosminsky had precisely the right sensibility for White Oleander. "This is exactly what we need," Wells recalls thinking, "someone who can work with characters in a real and restrained manner while sacrificing none of the honest emotion and never slipping into melodrama."

Kosminsky, who lives and works in England, was originally reluctant to accept the project when Wells approached him, as his schedule was already full and a Los Angeles shoot would mean time away from his family. He was, he recalls, "in the middle of a run of films I was making in Britain, with one project in particular pretty much set to go when I read the script." Having read the script, he then read the novel and found that he "simply could not resist it. I was incredibly moved by the story of this young woman and her voyage."

Although Astrid's experiences in various foster homes propel her development as an individual, it was never the intention of Janet Fitch nor the filmmakers for White Oleander to be an exposÈ of the foster care system. Kosminsky understood this implicitly and that was another reason why Wells was convinced that he was the right director for the project. "Some people automatically assume itís an indictment of the foster care system but that's not what the book is about," says Wells. "It's about how a young person, no matter the circumstances, can find his or her own identity and emerge from the shadow of a very powerful parent. The foster homes are just the setting for this metamorphosis. As it happens, it's Astridís bad luck to fall into a series of placements that are far from ideal.

"What emerged in my initial conversation with Peter was that he grasped the meaning immediately," Wells continues. "He knew it was essentially about the relationship between a mother and daughter and about growing up."

As Kosminsky describes it, "Here is a girl who spent her entire childhood walking on eggshells, living with a wonderful, charismatic but completely capricious, selfish and destructive mother. Ingrid is difficult and unpredictable. At her best she is a gifted artist as well as a perceptive, loving and utterly charming presence. But sheís not always at her best. As a child, I imagine Astrid would always be holding her breath, never sure what her motherís mood would be on any given day or how she might react to things.

"With no real friends her own age," Kosminsky continues, "Astrid sits on the edge of adult society, observing and sketching what she sees on a drawing pad. She idolizes her mother, who has raised her single-handedly. Ingrid is fond of saying that they are descendant of Vikings and Astrid imagines the two of them as Viking warriors, a united force against the world. Then, reality intrudes in a most dramatic way. Her mother is snatched away from her in an instant and she's left to fend for herself in a very hostile world."

As Astrid is placed in each new foster home in the years following Ingrid's incarceration, Kosminsky observes that initially she continues to behave as she did with her mother, trying to figure out what is required of her and then doing it. "Chameleon-like," he says, "she tries to assume the colors of each new world."

Her efforts, however, are largely undermined by Ingrid, who communicates with her daughter from prison and criticizes any new influences in Astrid's life that don't meet with her own idealistic standards, causing Astrid to question whatever little progress she has made. "I'm only protecting you from those people," Ingrid claims, but, as John Wells points out, "she is primarily interested in protecting herself ‚ in this case, from losing control of her daughter. This is the meaning behind Janet's choice of oleander as a symbol and the book's title. It's a beautiful flower that protects itself by making its own poison."

With the passage of time and a series of experiences, some of them traumatic, Astridís true strength and character begin to emerge. Increasingly distanced from the powerful influence of her charismatic and demanding mother and strengthened by the hard lessons learned in one troubled placement after another, she begins to trust her own judgment and make her own decisions. Ultimately, she will see not only her mother but everyone and everything in her life with increasing clarity ‚ as they are, not as she would like them to be. Only then will she be truly on her way to becoming an independent woman.

Category : 2A

Cinema:

AMC / UA Pacific Place / UA Shatin / Broadway Cinematheque /