The oleander shrub is a beautiful plant, but it can also be deadly poisonous.

The same proves true of Ingrid Magnussen (Michelle Pfeiffer), a headstrong, self-absorbed artist who poisons her lover Barry Kolker (Billy Connolly) when he betrays her.

What Ingrid does to her teenager daughter Astrid (Alison Lohman) in White Oleander is more insidious.

She poisons Astrid's mind, preventing the girl from enjoying what little happiness is possible when Ingrid is sent to prison.

Because Ingrid never married the man who fathered Astrid, the girl is placed in the foster care system.

Janet Fitch's best-selling novel had Astrid go through nine foster homes, learning a traumatic and life-defining lesson at each stop.

Peter Kosminsky's film focuses only on three of these homes.

Astrid's first foster mother Starr (Robin Wright Penn) is a reformed alcoholic and former stripper. Her second foster mother Claire (Renee Zellweger) is a neurotic, failed actress who is brow-beaten by her cheating husband (Noah Wyle).

Her final foster home is run by Rena, (Svetlana Efremova), who has almost a dozen other girls in her care. Rena uses them to run her booth at a flea market. It's a moment straight out of Charles Dickens' Oliver with Rena as a modern-day Fagan. Here Astrid learns independence and rebellion.

Were it not for Lohman's dazzling star turn, White Oleander would have been little more than a parade of beautiful women playing against type. But what could have been a daytime soap opera is actually a compelling look at a young woman's tragic odyssey.

(This film is rated AA)

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