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Michelle Pfeiffer, Alison Lohman excel in White Oleander
Sentimental drama showcases women stars.
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Arthur J Pais
A best-seller for over a year, Janet Fitch's first novel White Oleander is now a high profile film. Released along with five other films on Friday, the story of dysfunctional relationship, may get the best reviews of the week. However, the film which is in about 1500 movie theaters may not be able to eat Hannibal Lecter in Red Dragon which is who is expected to be No. 1 film this week too. So the question is whether White Oleander (starring Michelle Pfeiffer, Rene Zellweger and Robin Wright) will be a strong opener? Or would it lag behind the date comedy Brown Sugar, which aimed mostly at African Americans?
Many women-oriented films including Divine Secrets Of Ya-Ya Sisters have done good business at the box-office in recent years. They might not open to huge numbers but they display strong legs. Warner Brothers, which also distributed the film ($70 million gross in North America) and which was also based on a best-selling novel, is probably expecting a similar gross from White Oleander.
The Warner Bros film revolves around a teenager (Alison Lohman) whose mother (Michelle Pfeiffer) is serving a sentence in the prison for a crime of passion. The young woman goes from one foster home to another, trying to find meaning in her troubled life and eventually learns valuable lessons from another woman. The book, an immediate success soon after its publication, became a mega success after being chosen for Oprah Winfrey's Book Club, three years ago
Pfeiffer did a lot of promotion for White Oleander at the Toronto International Film Festival where it premiered last month. Talking with journalists, she said since it continues to be difficult for women to get meaty roles in Hollywood, people like her should work harder to make films such as White Oleander happen.
"Pfeiffer deserves an Oscar for her most powerful performance to date," noted Thelma Adams in US Weekly.
Pfeiffer has earned three Oscar nominations, in Love Field and The Fabulous Baker Boys, and as the supporting actress in Dangerous Liaisons. Her recent successes include I Am Sam, in which she was cast opposite Sean Penn. The film, which grossed a modest $30 million in North America, went on to gross a strong $60 million abroad. And of course, the Harrison Ford starring What Lies Beneath dug up about $300 million worldwide over two years ago.
Several critics have also singled out Lohman for her sensitive portrayal as the troubled teenager in White Oleander. Her "pensive loveliness carries the film", noted Richard Corliss in Time Magazine.
Rex Reed, another influential critic thought the entire cast did an exemplary job. "Intelligently written, sensitively directed (Peter Kosminsky) and memorably acted," he wrote in The New York Observer.
Kosminsky, the British director who made Warriors, a two-part series for the BBC about the fictional experiences of British soldiers who were trying to keep peace in Bosnia, made his American debut with White Oleander
Offering a lighter fare, Brown Sugar unfolds against the background of hip-hop music and tells the story of how a music critic and a successful but unfulfilled music executive come together. The film starring Taye Diggs and Sanaa Lathan, is being released in 1400 movie houses. With an $8 million budget, it could recoup the cost in just about 10 days On the other hand, White Oleander could have cost more than five times than Brown Sugar.
Lions Gate, who specialises in releasing quirky films, is taking to some 1300 theaters the campus drama called The Rules of Attraction. Set in the 1980s, it is the story of a bisexual man, his former girlfriend and a young who man who deals with drugs on the side.
With Sweet Home Alabama, which has grossed $70 million in two weeks, still going strong, it will be a big challenge to any one of the new films to displace it from the second position.