White Oleander : Movie Review


If anyone tries to tell you that "White Oleander," the movie adaptation of Janet Fitch's highly successful first novel, is a moving story about growth, redemption and self-discovery, don't buy it -- no picture as entertaining as this one deserves to be saddled with those Oprahville catchphrases. "White Oleander," too over-the-top in some places and too tastefully restrained in others, may not exactly be good. But at its best it offers pleasures similar to those of 1940s women's melodramas -- pictures in which the heroine, to borrow a line from Thelma Ritter in "All About Eve," suffers everything but the hound dogs yapping at her rear end.

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White Oleander (2002) - Synopsis Image
Author : Stephanie Zacharek