White Bird

White Bird in a Blizzard is one of the more interesting films of 2014, but it fails to pull off what it seemed like it promised it would. Shailene Woodley and Eva Green star as a daughter-mother duo in a mysterious crime drama. I really don't know what to make of this film. It's full of terrific performances by the entire cast, but the direction and execution of this story felt a little off.

But I have to commend Shailene Woodley for taking on different roles though. It seems as though she wants to be seen as something other than a teenage heartthrob in teen angst films. She is fabulous as Kat and once again proves that she is one of the best criers in the business. Eva Green, though not given a whole lot to do, makes the most out of her estranged wife character. I didn't know where her character was going and I definitely questioned the character arc, but she was great in the limited role. Christopher Meloni was also really good. I haven't been too familiar with his work besides Man of Steel so to me, he was pretty much a revelation.

There are a few dream sequences in the film, but really the entire movie felt dream like. The choice of colors, or non colors, really made it unique. The music, although good, was out of place and contributed to the strangeness of the film. Finally the entire last act was poorly directed. The way the events unravel, or lack there of, seemed anticlimactic. There was a moment with about 20 minutes ago where I felt really intrigued as to what would happen, but then it all just fell apart for me.

+Performances across the board

+Colorful

-Direction

-Last act

-What is it trying to say?

5.6/10

Rebellious teenager Kat Connors is only 17 when in 1988 her mother disappears in a blink, leaving her alone with her dull pushover of a father. Initially indifferent to the situation Kat soon has to reflect, and come to terms with her mother's absence while she comes of age and succumbs to her own primal sexual urges. Unorthodox, uneven mix of coming-of-age teen drama and police procedural doesn't mesh cohesively, especially with some fanciful dream sequences thrown in, plus there's a disconnect between the acting styles of Woodley, who brings a real authenticity to her role, and Green, who's unnerving and a bit too over-the-top. There's enough of the family dysfunction, youthful debauchery, and verbal diarrhea to keep a viewer invested, but the ending, which is meant to be shocking, instead just lacks conviction or impact. **

This movie starts off slowly. It is in the perspective of a gorgeous teenager who is solely concerned with her boyfriend. When her mom goes missing, she assumes that her mom kept her promise to leave her dad. As she recaps the relationship between her parents, the viewer is compelled to feel sorry for the wimpy father and agree with the teen's apathy towards her aggressive mother. In utter dismissal of her mom's abandonment, the teenager tries to focus on her boyfriend's reduced sexual interest. However, her intuition about her mother's disappearance keeps alerting her through inexplicable dreams. Then, when the teenager becomes an adult, things get GOOD! At the end, I realized that I really underestimated this movie. I had no idea this movie was going to be this good. I am glad I watched it and I want to see it again in order to catch some clues that I may have missed. The plot twist at the end REALLY caught me off-guard and I am still wondering if there was some hint throughout the movie that I missed. If anyone catches the hints, be sure to post them as spoilers.

After I watch a movie I sometimes come in here to see what others have to say. I'm not sure why I started doing that but I did. If the movie wasn't the best but I still feel like it was better than the very low rating it kinda makes me want to try to give it a better score. Unless I feel like it really deserves it. I guess the low rating might be why I don't even remember hearing about it when it came out. Maybe nobody was talking about it, I guess. After I read some of the reviews I still feel like it wasn't as bad as most think it was. I don't think it was bad at all to be honest. Obviously it's not getting any big nominations at the Oscar's but that's ok too. It held my attention all the way to the end and I was actually a little surprised by certain events. I'm not one sitting here trying to figure out a movie the whole time I'm watching either. I try to just let it play out however it plays out on it's own instead of beating it to the punch. So this is only my opinion as a normal 42 year old non professional IMDb user.

This movie is a hard movie to rate I feel, although many scenes are well orchestrated together as a movie it just doesn't make you feel anything, and the ending is clearly meant to be moving and shocking but it's really not.

Acting is... Okay, it's not bad but again the cast fail to make you sympathise with any of them, visually it's really good looking so that's always a plus but a lot of times the movie seems more focused on showcasing Shailene Woodley's breasts than anything else.

Now there's nothing wrong with them at all, in fact they are pretty neat however I'd prefer her keeping her clothes on if that meant that the director could focus on telling the story in it's best way as possible.

Listed as a drama/mystery/thriller but the drama that is feel too flat and superficial to ever hit an emotional core, even though it tries in the end but by then it's too late and based on how the characters interacted with each other previous having that boastful dramatic ending simply does not make much sense.

As far as the mystery well... sure there is some mystery I suppose but there are only so many ways it can end so it doesn't become very successful in that department either, plus most times it focuses on the teenager's sex-life more than anything else.

As far as the thriller goes, well even less there going on honestly, there's not many scenes of suspense here to be found.

No tbh it felt like this movie would work a lot better if they did it as a dark comedy and went a little more crazy with it, I think the movie could have succeeded at being that with just minor tweaks to the script.

I was debating whether to give it a 5 or a 4 but after writing down my thoughts here it has to be a 4 after all, there is talent involved but the movie just kinda feels a bit pointless.