A brilliant performance by newcomer Shailene Woodley is at the centre of this absorbing tale of a loveless family's breakdown, based on a book I was too lazy to read. She plays a young teenager who's parents have long ceased to care about each other... He seems to be a hapless doormat under her thumb, and she isn't getting any 'action' in bed... And so throws herself at her daughter's hunky yet dumb-as-a-post boyfriend. One day, after weeks of odd behaviour from the teen's mother, she just disappears.
Could she have run off? Killed herself? Or something even more startling than that? In any case, it doesn't seem to bother our protagonist too much... Her mother was emotionally distant at best, after all, so to her it was no big loss. She starts to interact with her dad more, and even begins at an affair with the middle-aged cop assigned to her mum's case. But as time wears on, and suspicions grow, she may just find out there's more to the people around her than meets the eye...
White Bird In A Blizzard is, at heart, just a compelling drama about the lives of everyday folk. Sure, she may have come from a tempestuous background,even as our heroine takes refuge from her troubles in the twin vices of either sex or cigarettes, we somehow know she'll be okay. As portrayed by Woodley, she radiates strength... And she has two brilliant best friends to help her out. Who happen to be an obese black girl, and a flamboyantly gay man. In most other films, this might come across as pandering to minorities. Here though, they're fully fleshed out characters, who contribute throughout by offering good advice and being there for their mate when she needs them. The pair playing this odd duo do wonderful work too, I must add.
Eva Green is memorably slutty and desperate as the mother you definitely would NOT want to introduce your first crush too, and Christopher Meloni stands out as the mild mannered, shrewish dad who MAY be hiding something. But mostly, this is Woodley's film, and as she grows up, dealing what life as thrown at her while the truth finally starts to dawn on her as to what REALLY happened that fateful day, it becomes a bit of a tour-de-force. And just when I thought I'd sussed it all, it saves it's BIGGEST surprise for right at the end...
A very satisfying hour and a half, and a great way to begin my movie watching for 2015... 7/10
Could she have run off? Killed herself? Or something even more startling than that? In any case, it doesn't seem to bother our protagonist too much... Her mother was emotionally distant at best, after all, so to her it was no big loss. She starts to interact with her dad more, and even begins at an affair with the middle-aged cop assigned to her mum's case. But as time wears on, and suspicions grow, she may just find out there's more to the people around her than meets the eye...
White Bird In A Blizzard is, at heart, just a compelling drama about the lives of everyday folk. Sure, she may have come from a tempestuous background,even as our heroine takes refuge from her troubles in the twin vices of either sex or cigarettes, we somehow know she'll be okay. As portrayed by Woodley, she radiates strength... And she has two brilliant best friends to help her out. Who happen to be an obese black girl, and a flamboyantly gay man. In most other films, this might come across as pandering to minorities. Here though, they're fully fleshed out characters, who contribute throughout by offering good advice and being there for their mate when she needs them. The pair playing this odd duo do wonderful work too, I must add.
Eva Green is memorably slutty and desperate as the mother you definitely would NOT want to introduce your first crush too, and Christopher Meloni stands out as the mild mannered, shrewish dad who MAY be hiding something. But mostly, this is Woodley's film, and as she grows up, dealing what life as thrown at her while the truth finally starts to dawn on her as to what REALLY happened that fateful day, it becomes a bit of a tour-de-force. And just when I thought I'd sussed it all, it saves it's BIGGEST surprise for right at the end...
A very satisfying hour and a half, and a great way to begin my movie watching for 2015... 7/10