Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood / White Oleander (2002)

Grab your tissues and send the guys away, because Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood is the most pedigreed chick flick since Steel Magnolias. You can tell by the title and the novelish names of the Louisiana ladies from Rebecca Wells's precious bestseller. First there's Sidda (Sandra Bullock), a successful playwright still wrestling with her manipulative mother, Vivi (Ellen Burstyn), after a traumatic upbringing. Then there's longtime friends Teensy (Fionnula Flanagan), Necie (Shirley Knight), and Caro (scene-stealer Maggie Smith), from Vivi's secret club of "Ya-Ya Priestesses," together since childhood and determined to heal the rift between Sidda and her mom. Through an ambitious flashback structure (including Ashley Judd as the younger Vivi), screenwriter and first-time director Callie Khouri (who wrote Thelma & Louise) establishes a rich context for this mother-daughter reunion. There's plenty of humor to temper the drama, which inspires Bullock's best work in years. Definitely worth a look for the curious, but only fans of Wells's fiction will feel any twinge of loyalty. --Jeff Shannon

Fine performances and sensitive direction keep White Oleander from being a routine tearjerker. Adapted from Janet Fitch's bestseller (an Oprah's Book Club selection), this hard-edged drama boasts a reputable cast, but 23-year-old newcomer Alison Lohman steals the film from her A-list costars. As a troubled teen whose controlling mother (Michelle Pfeiffer) has been jailed for murder, Lohman is the film's heart and soul, bouncing between foster homes and rushing toward independence in a world of disappointing adults. After surviving episodic stints with a trashy born-again Christian (Robin Wright Penn), a suicidal housewife (Renie Zellweger), and a Russian immigrant (Zvetlana Efremova), she finds comfort with another outcast (Patrick Fugit), leaving behind the mothers who failed her. Making his feature directorial debut, British stage and TV veteran Peter Kosminsky creates a showcase for formidable actresses, each given moments to shine. White Oleander lacks the emotional depth of Fitch's novel, but it speaks volumes about the delicate balance of freedom and responsibility. --Jeff Shannon Amazon.com

TWO FILMS ABOUT THE PROVERBIAL MOTHER/DAUGHTER RELATIONSHIP...

DIVINE SECRETS OF THE YA-YA SISTERHOOD ***

This is a film about mother/daughter relationships and about unconditional love. Despite being marked by fine performances, the film never really grabs the viewer, at least, not this viewer. While moderately enjoyable, I found the film to fall a little flat, as the whole Ya-Ya thing left me cold, finding it all a bit silly.

Not having read the book of the same name upon which the film is based, I had no frame of reference. Judging strictly on the merits of the film, I found that it has its ups and downs. The name of the film is apparently derived from a childhood club to which a group of lifelong friends belonged as children in which they were all Ya-Ya priestesses. These friends, of which Vivi (Ellyn Burstyn) is at the center of this story, are all trying to reconcile Vivi to her daughter Sidda (Sandra Bullock). The friends, as well as Vivi, are all aging southern belles from Louisiana. Sidda, however, has moved North, where she is a budding, successful playwright.

Sidda had a traumatic childhood, as her mother is a mercurial woman with a drinking problem. It seems that Vivi never got over losing her childhood sweetheart during the war. She married another man, Shep Walker (James Garner), Sidda's father and a man who has loved Vivi unconditionally throughout their entire married life, and proceeded to put her husband and her children through a living hell. Still, Vivi and Sidda manage to plod along as so many mothers and daughters do, until Vivi goes too far and Sidda decides that enough is enough.

The story of Vivi, Sidda, and Shep is told in flashbacks, which provide the most interesting parts of the movie. Ashley Judd is simply sensational as the young Vivi, and she outshines all the film and stage veterans in this film, infusing the role with a gritty reality. David Lee Smith is very good as the hunky young Shep, the husband who tries to understand a mercurial wife who has become unbalanced by her longing for what could never be.

Ellen Burstyn as the senior Vivi is not as compelling as the younger one portrayed by Ashley Judd. The senior Vivi comes across as a silly, petulant, spoiled, self-absorbed woman who needs a good swift kick in the butt. Consequently, the viewer cares very little for what happens to her, even though she is eventually reconciled to her daughter and comes to appreciate her patient, selfless husband.

Maggie Smith, Fionnula Flanagan, and Shirley Knight are all excellent as Vivi's lifelong friends, though Ms. Smith occasionally seems to have a bit of difficulty suppressing her British accent. They inject a touch of humor into their attempts to reconcile the estranged Vivi and Sidda, which is a good counterpoint to the underlying pathos of the film. Sandra Bullock is also excellent as the fed up Sidda, who has said that enough is enough. As in all her film, she charms the viewer. James Garner is wonderful as Vivi's long suffering husband, who comes to be appreciated by Vivi only at the end.

Unfortunately, the director appears to have striven for mawkishness. Consequently, the ending of this film is enough to make one gag, as Sidda is inducted into the Ya-Ya sisterhood. This alone is enough for me to counsel viewers to rent, and not buy, this film.

WHITE OLEANDER ****

This is a film adaptation of the best selling novel of the same name. I cannot say whether as an adaptation it is faithful to the book, not having read it, as yet. What I can say is that is an excellent drama, marked by a breakout performance by Alison Lohman. She is positively inspiring in the role of Astrid, a young, pre-pubescent girl of twelve whose life is torn apart when her mother, a beautiful, brilliant, and talented artist, is convicted of murder. The film chronicles Astrid's coming of age and the way that she deals with the vicissitudes of life, as she grows into a young woman. Ms. Lohman plays Astrid from ages twelve through about twenty, as believable at twelve as she is at twenty, no easy transition to make. Yet, she does so brilliantly.

The film is about a number of things. It is about exploration of the proverbial mother/daughter relationship. It is about the breaking of myths. It is about coping with tragedy and reality. It is about working with the hand with which one has been dealt in life. It is about love. It is about hate. It is about reconciliation. It is about redemption.

Astrid and her mother, Ingrid, lead a materially comfortable life. Ingrid (Michelle Pfeiffer) is a narcissistic, successful artist, with a cynical view on life who tries to inculcate and control her daughter with her own personal, unorthodox philosophy. Astrid, a sensitive, intelligent, and artistically gifted child, who is mature beyond her years, adores her mother, viewing her through rose colored glasses, even when Ingrid fails in meeting the most basic of parental responsibilities. Ingrid cheerfully chooses to go to an opening of a friend's gallery show rather than attend parents' night at her daughter's school. After all, as she explains to Astrid, what can the school tell her about her daughter that she does not already know?

Astrid's feelings about Ingrid are put to the test, when her mother gives in to her violent passions and kills her lover. Convicted and sentenced to prison for many years, Ingrid is separated from Astrid, and Astrid's comfortable, though unorthodox, world is rendered asunder. Astrid would begin a long and painful, personal journey and a coming of age that would not be easy, as she attempts to reconcile the mother she thought she knew with the mother that she is just really starting to get to know. The mythic is now approaching reality.

Astrid goes through a number of foster homes but each time that Ingrid senses that Astrid is getting attached to her foster mother or her foster family, Ingrid does what she can to poison the well, until she finally crosses the line. As Astrid grows up and starts to understand her mother's machinations, an emotional schism begins, one that is painful both to mother and daughter, with self-realization and reconciliation as outgrowths of their painful discovery.

Michelle Pfeiffer is brilliant as the coldly diabolical Ingrid, a woman who would sacrifice her child's happiness in order to retain emotional control over that child. She is as poisonous as the beautiful white oleander flower, whose appearance belies its deadly nature. Robin Penn Wright is wonderful as Starr, Astrid's first foster mother, a born again Christian and former alcoholic exotic dancer with a heart of gold, who is looking to hang on to her man no matter what the cost. It is in her home that Astrid gets a reality check in the cruelest of ways. Removed from that home, Astrid is then sent to the home of Claire (Renee Zellweger) and her hunky husband (Noah Wylie). It is with Claire that Astrid begins to have a true mother/daughter relationship, provoking Ingrid's jealousy. Ingrid moves in for the kill, manipulating Claire's insecurities in order to separate Claire and Astrid. What Ingrid does, however, has tragic consequences and serves to further alienate Astrid from her. Renee Zellweger gives a moving and sweetly poignant performance as the hapless Claire.

When Astrid is also removed from this home, she ends up in an institution with other children with no place to go. There, she meets a young man (Patrick Fugit) who is also artistic and Astrid bonds with him. When Astrid talks to her mother about him and his art, Ingrid disparages him, trying to drive a wedge between Astrid and her young man. She succeeds somewhat, and Astrid cuts herself off from him and, in the process, from herself and from Ingrid. Refusing to opt for a traditional foster family when pushed to do so, no longer hopeful of making a loving, familial connection, she chooses, instead, to live with an unorthodox foster mother, a Russian immigrant (Zvetlana Efremova) and modern day Fagin. It is here that Astrid totally separates from herself and from her past, until a set of circumstances compel a confrontation with her mother. It is one in which Ingrid has an opportunity to make a decision that a real mother would make. It is also a decision that has the ability to make or break Astrid.

This well nuanced film is superb, with phenomenal performances, but none more so that that of Alison Lohman. How she failed to receive an Academy Award nomination, I will never know. Kudos also go to director Peter Kosminsky for exacting wonderful and sensitive performances from the entire cast. The film also points out the problems with the foster care system. It shows how children are often placed with dysfunctional families. It delineates the often large gap between expectations and reality in terms of the parenting skills of the respective foster parents. The lack of knowledge of the quality of care the child is receiving, as well as its ignorance of the actual familial dynamics, is also brought home. This is an infinitely sad and somewhat depressing film, notwithstanding its overall excellence. June 1, 2006

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