The White Orchid

White Orchid is a visually striking neo-noir that falls short of its potential. While the setup is intriguing, the story lacks complexity, with puzzle pieces fitting together too easily and a predictable resolution. The protagonist's transformation feels rushed and unearned, undermining the emotional weight of the narrative. Though the cinematography captures the noir aesthetic well, the lack of meaningful twists and moral ambiguity makes the film feel overly simplistic. Ultimately it's watchable but fails to leave a lasting impression. The film also overstretches the protagonists beauty focusing more on showcasing her body than meaningful dialogue.

White Orchid (2018) was written and directed by Steve Anderson. It stars Olivia Thirlby as Claire, an independent investigator who often works for the county department of social services.

A woman has been horribly butchered by someone. Of course, that's the job of the sheriff, not social services. However, in California, the law says that if there are no relatives, social services must investigate as well.

Claire takes the case, and travels to the site of the woman's death, and has access to the home she had rented. What follows next does, indeed, fall into the classic category of "girl detective." However, the way the movie plays out, there's much more to it than that.

The most striking part of the movie for me was how director Anderson and Olivia Thirlby managed Claire's transition from a quiet, almost mousy character into a highly feminine, desirable woman. Of course, Olivia Thirlby is strikingly beautiful, so the trick wasn't to make her attractive, but to make her unattractive at the beginning of the film. It couldn't have been easy, but they did it.

The movie is one of those films where at the end, you say, "OK--who was the dead woman, and who killed her? People walk out of the movie trying to make sense of it. Director Anderson was in the theater for Q&A, and he says that all the clues are there, but he wouldn't tell us the answer. (Of course he knows the answer--he wrote the script.)

OK--but even if you're not quite sure about the loose ends of the plot, the film holds your interest throughout. The California scenery is beautiful and the acting is excellent.

We saw this movie at the great Little Theatre as part of The Rochester High Falls Women's Film Festival. It won't work quite as well on the small screen, because you'll miss the glorious scenery. Even so, it's worth finding and seeing.

"What movie did they see?" This film has a terrible IMDb rating of 5.0, with 224 ratings. It's not a great movie that will be remembered forever, but it's much better than 5.0. I suggest you see it and decide for yourself.

With some similarities to the actual black dahlia case from the 1940s, which was never solved.... this was written and directed by steve anderson. Claire (olivia thirlby) is sent to a small town on the coast to investigate the murder of a young, un-identified single woman. When she meets the local sheriff (john lynch, who we know from fargo), she doesn't trust him, and realizes she is on her own. Some fun roles for well known faces... jennifer beals is vivian. Nichelle nichols (lieutenant uhura !) is teresa, friend of the deceased woman. It's okay. It's a little more melodramatic than it needs to be, and the wigs and make-up claire uses make her look like a drag queen. And we really didn't need to spend so long watching the band in the bar about an hour in... that kind of took away from the noir feeling of the story. The first three quarters of the film run in a straight forward fashion, but the ending feels like it was an extra big twist ending , or maybe changed around from what it was originally. Confusing. Produced in association with the humphrey bogart estate. Anderson seems to be employed or partnered with santana productions, which was also the name of bogart's boat. As of today, this is the last project listed for anderson. He also directed the big empty, which is good but also has an odd, mysterious ending. Seems to be his specialty.

Northern California - check Crazy women - check Hot women - check (debatable) Psychological thriller - Check (debatable) Hot Lesbian Love - Check (kind of) Crazy cop - yes Crazy doctor - yes Crazy insane Italian sports car - check Terrible dialogue - CHECK Awful wigs/disguises - check Confusing as hell story - check check check Femme fatale buddying you with old lady - check!

You get the drift.

Already the title of the movie conveys that this is going to be a noir experience, and while the beginning seems a little inauspicious in that regard, setting us up with a mousy-looking female protagonist instead of a weary and cynical male one, as is usual for this kind of genre, it does pay off as the character undergoes an unexpected arc and the movie's intrigues get more perplexing.

The cinematography and acting is pretty solid, but not outstanding. I liked the music, and the story was not bad, even if it got quite a bit far-fetched toward the end.

My main points of criticism are that the transition from the nerdy investigator to bombshell blonde was somehow not truly convincing, and that the protagonist and especially villain's actions toward the end seemed rather preposterous. In fact, the self-congratulatory tone of the exchanges between them at the end turned me a bit off.

In addition, due to the similarity of this movie's title with the erotic film "Wild Orchid", it sets up audience expectations for steamy love scenes, of which there is just one, and by erotic film standards it is more on the tame side.

All in all, not a bad diversion, but it could have been better.