White Bird in a Blizzard

Starring: Shailene Woodley, Eva Green, Christopher Meloni, Shiloh Fernandez, Angela Bassett, Gabourey Sidibe, Ava Acres, Thomas Jane
Directed: Gregg Araki
Rating: R
Genre: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
2014

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A girl (Shailene Woodley) struggles to understand her new life after his mother (Eva Green) mysteriously vanishes.

Review:
Tim: I'm pretty surprised by Shailene Woodley's young career. Yes, she has shot to super-stardom in big franchise and Hollywood fare like Divergent and The Fault in Our Stars, but she continues to make very smart choices by making smaller, more challenging films like White Bird in a Blizzard. It's films like this where she can continue to hone her craft and I hope she doesn't go full Hollywood blockbuster. This film is an interesting one because it defies expectation- is this a crime mystery? A coming-of-age story? A story about a sexual awakening? A psychological thriller? The answer is that it's some combination of all of those. It's not what you expect and I really enjoyed that.

The bulk of the film explores Shailene Woodley's Kat Connors. She's a bit of a rebellious teen in the late 1980s. Her mother clearly does not love her father, a wimpy, pushover of a man. Kat is fairly open wit her sexuality, first sleeping with a kind but dumb guy-next-door and then later with a kind older man. One day, with no warning, no note, taking nothing, her mother disappears. The rest of the film explores the aftermath of this. Kat is initially not all that affected. She wasn't especially close with her mother, especially with her erratic behavior in recent months. She does see a psychiatrist, who somewhat seems to help. Fast forward a few years and Kat is still dealing well on the surface, but a return to her hometown during a college break stirs up some of her old emotions. The ending of the film was a bit of a surprise and somewhat disjointed from the rest of the film. Still, it's unique.

Woodley does a good job in the lead role. While she's been better, she gives a solid performance that further cements her status as a talented young actress. Eva Green was mostly good as her mother. She has a few tremendous moments, but a few weak moments as well. Christopher Meloni gave a surprisingly strong performance as her father. I liked the casting of Thomas Jane. I've liked Jane for a long time and it was nice to see him showing the talent that he does have. Angela Bassett was a nice addition but she has very little of any substance to do. Still, for a smaller movie, the cast is impressive.

This film will likely turn some people off because it is so hard to categorize. It really doesn't fit in comfortably in one genre. It explores a diversity of themes, especially the ending, which doesn't feel like a perfectly natural conclusion to the story. Still, I bought into it and appreciated the story wrapping up in a fairly unexpected way. For a 91 minute film, it explores quite a bit and mostly keeps up a good pace. I'm not completely sold on director Gregg Araki (I hated his Smiley Face), but he does a good job here. He could have squeezed more emotion out of the story and made the middle a little less soggy, but his unconventional film was enjoyable.

White Bird in a Blizzard is an easy-to-overlook, small film. The film made $33,000 at the box office, so it's a movie no one saw due to its very limited release. Still, that doesn't mean this isn't a good movie. It's unexpected and mostly entertaining, and it's a movie I would recommend seeing.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 7



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: The Fault in Our Stars, The Descendants