"Love humiliates you. Hatred cradles you." - Ingrid

I was never able to get comfortable with films so heavily steeped in feminine emotions, but with this film it was much easier. Astrid is your basically normal child who lives with her mother Ingrid. Right away we can already see that their life is far from normal; often times Ingrid seems to mold her daughter into a person with her own beliefs and views on life and particularly men. When Astrid asks her to come to a parent/teacher night she responds with: "What can they tell me about you that I don't already know?" Their house walls are often plastered with Ingrid's often haunting artwork which is often centered around her daughter, and Astrid attempts to be exactly like her mother, whom in some ways knows her mother isn't all sane. When Ingrid is in a relationship with a man (Billy Connolly) and doesn't hear from him, she and Astrid go to his house where Ingrid attempts to confront him. Astrid can almost sense something is amidst, something grim within her mother, but seems to brush it off.

To say she supplies an incredible performance is somewhat of an understatement. The character of Astrid manages to evolve throughout the course of the story in the film through Lohman's Oscar worthy performance, and we manage to experience everything she does through Lohman's down to earth realistic beauty and personality she instills within this character. She is first taken to the home of Starr Thomas (Robin Wright Penn: Forrest Gump, The Pledge), an ex-stripper/drug user whose first question to her is: "Have you accepted Christ as your savior?" Staying in a trailer park with three other children in a basically crowded house, she experiences sex from a man for the first time with Starr's husband (Cole Hauser). When she's shot and practically killed by Starr as their affair is discovered, she's taken to a group home where her reception is less than sincere but begins to experience friendship for the first time with Paul Trout (Patrick Fugit: Almost Famous).

She continues the meetings in jail with her mother who practically disowns her when she discovers Ingrid became a Christian when living with Starr and continues to gripe about her daughter's choice of beliefs. It becomes evident throughout the film that Ingrid is somewhat of a poison upon her daughter's life as she manages to sabotage and psychologically manipulate her life into tragedy in some way, such is evident when Astrid experiences true love and warmth from aspiring actress Claire who is the next person to take her in showing her love and giving her true friendship. There's even a chuckle inducing running gag in which Zelweger's character is showing Astrid her first starring role, when in fact it's one of Zelweger's first films. It's instantly sabotaged with Ingrid and she meet for the first time; we know Ingrid's intentions for her daughter and we know she is a bane on Astrid's life, but we soon begin to wonder if Astrid will ever discover that before it's too late.

Michelle Pfeiffer in one of her most malicious and powerful roles plays the beautiful and evil Ingrid who plays as sort of the bad aspects of life. She refuses to let her daughter pursue any type of happiness unless it is with her. The film uses White Oleander as a metaphor for Pfeiffer's character who is a poison upon Astrid within contact; it's mentioned that White Oleander is in fact poisonous. The film manages to produce many heart-wrenching moments that will surely tug at your tear ducts with the finale and even one incredible scene where Lohman has an emotional breakdown. I was stunned to think this was actually a really good film other than my pre-judgment which was that this was simply a film intended for the sole purpose of entertaining women and only women, when in fact this is an entertaining film with no true target despite it's first appearance.

I was rather taken aback by the under-used role of Zelweger who appears for only a portion of the film. She's not given time to develop her character to the point where we would feel for her so in a sense her character feels incomplete. Also, the film tries too hard to tug at people's emotions throughout the film with the melodramatic arrest scene with Pfeiffer, and the group home which I didn't really become involved with. At time the cinematographer looked as if they were shooting the scenes in filters that made the screen too bright to watch; all in all, it inevitably became staggering.

This is a truly involving, well-written and entertaining film supported by excellent performances by Pfeiffer, Zelweger, Wright Penn, and Lohman who manages to become most memorable.

• The scene that Renee Zelweger's character Claire shares from her career in film is a clip from Return of the "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre", one of Zelweger's actual first films.
• Alison Lohman wore a wig in the film; she was bald throughout the whole film, because she had just previously filmed a role as a cancer patient.

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