White Bird

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.

White Bird in a Blizzard is set in the 1988, and tells the story of Kat Conner, played by Shailene Woodley, a 17 year old girl who seems to live a normal life until her perfect, homemaker mother, Eve, played by Eva Green, disappears one day. Having lived in a dysfunctional relationship with her mother, she feels little pain or sadness towards her mother's absence. She doesn't even blame her father, Brock, played by Chris Meloni, as he is too much of a wimp to have anything to do with her disappearance. As a few years go by, and Kat goes to College, she begins to realize just how much her mother's disappearance really impacted her, as she finds herself investigating and discovering the truth about what really happened.

White Bird in a Blizzard is based on a novel by Laura Kasischke and adapted by director Gregg Araki. Simply put, it is a somewhat bizarre, silly, sex romp, featuring a great lead performance by Shailene Woodley. This film fits director Gregg Araki's usual teenage sex and violence overtones, and features some pretentious and overbearing dialogue that almost comes off as an unintentional comedy. There are also some interesting things in this film, directing-wise: an unusual opening with a shot of Eve, the mother, on her back and a recurring dream sequence throughout involves Kat seeing her mother naked in the snow (hence the title). This is actually supposed to be a symbol for the film and a clue to the audience about the truth of the mystery. Additionally, the film's use of flashbacks is both bizarre and fascinating at the same time, making the relationship between mother and daughter all the more dysfunctional and creepy.

In the lead role, Shailene Woodley demonstrates her talents portraying a teenager who really doesn't know who to trust. The flashback where her mother comes into the room and tries to psychically assault her features some very fine acting by Woodley. In comparison, Eva Green appears more "over the top' and gives a notably "hammy" performance, portraying a clearly disturbed woman. In one of the scenes, for example, when she tries to act younger than her age and then breakdowns, it is mildly disturbing and gloriously cheesy all at the same time. The other actors in the film are good, especially Chris Meloni as the father who has a secret to hide, and Angela Bassett as a psychiatrist.

Overall I thought this was interesting film, but I don't know what to really make of it.

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 was more about a teenager's obsessing with her breasts and sex ,then about her missing mother! Her mother's missing and given their history she assumed mom left dad, meanwhile all she can think about is sex with the detective that's on the case of her missing mother, and screwing her boyfriend who no longer desires her , which we find out why later on in the movie. For the movie to supposedly be about a woman gone missing it sure did not focus on it. It focused more on the girl coming of age and her desires, if that's the case it should have been titled A Coming of Age ,college years later she's literally sitting around her friends before she actually gets the idea that maybe, just maybe her mom didn't run away after all, maybe something did happen to her? Maybe dad is responsible? Just for her friends to tell her hey, we've been telling you that for years now! Really Columbo?