White Oleander

White Oleander
$13.95
This is quite simply one of the best books I have ever read. The movie does not compare- if you liked the movie, this book is a MUST READ. I guarantee you will be impressed.

Paint It Black: A Novel
$13.99
Fitch had me at Oleander. Was awaiting this newest novel and was not disappointed. Fitch has a style of her own. Was dark in parts but overall a really great read.

Girl, Interrupted
$14.94
I purchased the item for a class project as a Behavior Health major. The movie was excellent and I received an "A" on the project. What more can I say. Thank you for the timely manner in which the item was delivered.

White Oleander (Full Screen)
$14.98
This is an absolutely first rate film, of a girl who must overcome a childhood with a manipulative, crazy, destructive single mother. The cast is simply stunning: Wright Penn, Zellweger, and Pfeiffer in perhaps her greatest performance.

The situation is that an adolescent, when her mother goes to prison, must go into the foster care system. What she experiences, as is the stuff of narratives, is truly horrible. Any time that she builds a relationship, it is destroyed or revealed as worthless. Throughout all of this, she begins to see her birth mother for what she is, and seeks to go her own way.

But her mother, even from prison, can control events by the relationships she can create. All over again, it is like a recapitulation of the daughter's entire life, which spurs her to seek the truth even at the cost of traducing her inner self. They have a terrible fight, played almost entirely off stage but understood in moments of simple dialogue, that is the fight for the girl's life itself.

Alison Lohman, as the daughter, is simply extraordinary. There is not a moment that rings false or hollywood-chinsey, but her pain and struggle is achingly real. Of course, the character has some talent, as an artist like her mother, but also in her ability to form relationships. She has seen so much pain and self-destruction, that she learns she must fend for herself. I do not think I have ever seen a film that succeeds so completely as a coming of age drama of finding a path through the pain. She becomes tough, but she does not lose the perceptive sensitive core that might show her a way to become a healthy, loving adult. It is amazing to watch and there is not a jot of sentimentality, only realistic tragedy and growth for what it is worth.

Warmly recommended. This is a moving journey that says so much about what youth must survive through our pathetically damaged social system and deficient public policy. Lohman is amazing and so are the other stars. This a both great drama and social commentary.