Rent White Oleander (2002)

Slow Poison - White Oleander review by Steve

Sombre character study adapted from a bestseller (by Janet Finch). This is an actors film led by Alison Lohman as a teenager abandoned to the mercy of Californian foster care after her single mother (Michelle Pfeiffer) goes to prison for murder.

The events mostly reflect on the child's attempts to understand and escape from this traumatic maternal relationship. Initial disquiet at the daughter's brattish personality soon falls away under the sincerity and depth of Lohman's portrayal.

Pfeiffer is too impassive as the solipsistic, freethinking mother, but there are some fertile support roles as the parental stand-ins. Renée Zellweger is easily best as a rich, mentally unstable trophy wife about to enter middle age with an errant, unloving husband.

It's voyeuristic, like emotional exploitation. Maybe even tasteful misery porn. But there's a nuanced- if sanitised- impression of what growing up in care may be like, and a nice feel for sunny, suburban Los Angeles... It’s interesting to see the resilient child change within the influence of each family.