‘White Oleander’ harrowing, intense Pfeiffer, newcomer Lohman shine in mother-daughter melodrama

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In theaters

WHITE OLEANDER, directed by Peter Kosminsky, written by Mary Agnes Donoghue, based on the novel by Janet Fitch, 110 minutes, rated PG-13.

When Irish Traveller Madelyne Gorman Toogood had “a bad day” last month and took it out on her 4-year-old daughter, Martha, beating her in the parking lot of a Kohl’s department store while a surveillance camera captured the attack on video, she unwittingly sparked a national dialogue about child abuse that finds new fuel in Peter Kosminsky’s “White Oleander.”

The film, a mother-daughter soap opera based on Janet Fitch’s Oprah-backed best seller, is a melodramatic potboiler, for sure, but it’s a harrowing, extremely well-acted potboiler, a movie about the ramifications of emotional abuse that resonates with moments of truth as it follows one girl’s descent into hell.

The film stars Michelle Pfeiffer as Ingrid, an artist-cum-poisonous sociopath whose physical beauty belies a cruel spirit and an ugly heart, and Alison Lohman as her teenage daughter Astrid, a budding artist whose mother happens to be Mommy Dearest for the new millennium.

For Astrid, life strikes a sour note and sustains it when the unstable Ingrid murders her inattentive boyfriend, Barry (Billy Connolly), and is sent to prison. Over the next several years, Astrid bounces between foster homes and foster moms while Ingrid, who consistently looks too fresh and pretty for someone serving 35 to life, maintains a fierce emotional grip because she’s either unwilling or unable to let go.

Indeed, each communication and visit with her daughter is seen by Ingrid as an opportunity to play with her mind, undermining what little happiness Astrid has managed to achieve, which isn’t much.

As the film unwinds, Kosminsky follows Astrid’s tumultuous relationships with three foster mothers, including Robin Wright Penn as the sluttish, gun-wielding, born-again Christian, Starr; Renee Zellweger as a third-rate actress with a neglectful husband (Noah Wyle); and Svetlana Efremova as a Russian temptress with a hive of other foster girls who shuck discount clothing at outdoor shopping bazaars.

In their own way, all of the performances are riveting even if (or especially since, depending on how you look at it) some tip the balance into camp, as does Penn’s. Still, in her defense, Penn was handed a role that asked her to tear up the scenery while working her way through a carton of cigarettes and an endless parade of red stilettos. She pulls it off memorably, as does Pfeiffer, who’s so good as the conniving Ingrid, she should consider joining Robin Williams in recharging her career by finding roles that exploit her dark side.

The standout here is Lohman, whose strong performance grounds the movie even as its seams threaten to burst. As the film opens, Astrid states that she doesn’t “know how to express how being with someone so dangerous was the last time I felt safe.” As the film ends, Kosminsky allows her to express those feelings in a way that suggests even the most unwanted of maternal ties run deep.

Grade: B+

On video and DVD

WINDTALKERS, directed by John Woo, written by John Rice and Joe Batteer, 134 minutes, rated R.

The World War II movie “Windtalkers” is about Navajo codetalkers, American Indian servicemen who used their language to confound the Japanese while transmitting sensitive information via radio.

It’s an important, overlooked piece of history that deserves to be explored in a movie – and it still does, it is hoped soon in a film that will, at the very least, have a genuine interest in the subject.

“Windtalkers” doesn’t.

The film, from a script by John Rice and Joe Batteer, stars Nicolas Cage as Sgt. Joe Enders, a disfigured man with a ruined ear whose mission in Saipan is to protect Ben Yahzee (Adam Beach), a Navajo codetalker – or windtalker – who is crucial to the war effort.

Directed by Hong Kong’s John Woo, “Windtalkers” suggests Woo’s own knowledge of World War II wasn’t mined from hard research, but from the movies.

Its graphic violence aside, the film is a throwback and a relic, generating rote rhythms and easy cliches without spinning a single surprise or offering a believable character.

Some of the battle sequences do pack a wallop, as you’d expect from the director of “Face/Off” and “Mission: Impossible II,” but they never end. Worse, by the time Christian Slater shows up as Ox, a grinning, harmonica-playing sergeant who makes stirring music with one of the Navajos, you can’t help thinking, “When did Christian Slater get sprung out of jail? And how in hell did he learn to play that harmonica?”

It doesn’t matter. At that point, “Windtalkers” has already blown itself into the line of its own fire.

Grade: C-

Christopher Smith is the Bangor Daily News film critic. His reviews appear Mondays and Fridays in Style, Tuesdays on “NEWS CENTER at 5” and Thursdays on “NEWS CENTER at 5:30” on WLBZ 2 and WCSH 6. He can be reached at BDNFilm1@aol.com.

The Video-DVD Corner

Renting a video or a DVD? NEWS film critic Christopher Smith can help. Below are his grades of recent releases in video stores, starting with the most current releases.

Insomnia ? A

Life or Something Like It ? B-

Scooby-Doo ? C-

Windtalkers ? C-

Big Trouble ? D

Enough ? C-

Jason X ? Bomb

Brotherhood of the Wolf ? B

The Scorpion King ? B

Enigma ? C

Monsoon Wedding ? A-

Murder by Numbers ? C

Death to Smoochy ? B+

40 Days and 40 Nights ? C-

Monsters, Inc. ? A-

Panic Room ? B

Changing Lanes ? B

Count of Monte Cristo ? B+

Frailty ? C-

Blade II: B+

High Crimes ? C

Queen of the Damned ? C-

Iris ? B

Joe Somebody ? D

The Rookie ? A-

The Sweetest Thing ? D+

We Were Soldiers ? B+

Birthday Girl ? B

The Business of Strangers ? B

Clockstoppers ? C

In the Bedroom ? A

The New Guy ? D

Showtime ? C+

Deuces Wild ? D-

Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring ? B+

Collateral Damage ? D

Dragonfly ? D

Resident Evil ? C-

Crossroads ? C-

Kung Pow: Enter the Fist: B-

The Time Machine ? D-

Amelie ? A

John Q. ? C-

Pinero ? B

Charlotte Gray ? B+

Hart’s War ? B

The Royal Tenenbaums ? B+

Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius ? B+

Shallow Hal ? C

A Beautiful Mind ? B

Gosford Park ? B+

I Am Sam ? C

The Majestic ? D-

Max Keeble’s Big Move ? B

Orange County ? C-

The Shipping News ? C

Rollerball ? F

Black Hawk Down ? B

Kate & Leopold ? C+

Monster’s Ball ? A

The Mothman Prophecies ? C

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone ? B 3/4

Sidewalks of New York ? B-

Lantana ? A

Vanilla Sky ? B+

Corky Romano ? D-

From Hell ? C

The Others ? B+

Snow Dogs ? B-

Ocean’s Eleven ? B

Waking Life ? A

Ali ? B+

Not Another Teen Movie ? C-

Behind Enemy Lines ? C-

No Man’s Land ? A

Black Knight ? F

The Deep End ? A

Domestic Disturbance ? C

The Man Who Wasn’t There ? B+

Mulholland Drive ? A

Spy Game ? C+

Bandits ? D