A good movie and worth watching. The acting is outstanding. Michelle Pfeiffer does a great job portraying Ingrid Magnussen, a brilliant woman fiercely fixated on maintaining her independence and nurturing her private demons, even to the point of almost destroying her daughter, Astrid. I say "almost." To reveal what is meant by that key term would be to give away the ending. I strongly recommend the reader to see this remarkable movie. Intertwined within the film is the issue of good and evil. Astrid is played with complete conviction by Alison Lohman. Lohman, who in reality was twenty-two during the making of the movie, plays a teenager who at the beginning with her mother in LA is still basically a child. She transforms before our eyes into a beautiful young woman seeking to discover who she is. Placed in several foster homes, she must find her own way and free herself from her powerful and manipulative mother. I found their relationship crushing, but within the context, completely believable. The supporting cast is also first-rate. I rate this movie an 7 out of 10.
My only criticism is the movie leaves too much to suggestion, but perhaps this was to preserve its PG-13 rating. Because it does leave too much to suggestion, several relationships are not explored satisfactorily. For example, it would have been interesting to see how Alison behaved when she loses her virginity with Ray, her first foster mother's boyfriend, and her emotions centering around it. With the recent exception of Unfaithful, American films fail to explore adequately human sexuality. Foreign films are way ahead of the American film industry in this regard, and it's really too bad. Y Tu Mamá También, Lucia y el Sexo, and Intimacy quickly come to mind. Maybe there's a lesson to be learned here.
I also have a comment. Given the premise of the movie, that Ingrid Magnussen creates a poisonous concoction from Oleander leaves, stalks, and flowers by steeping them in milk, I have to question whether this would be a very effective method to kill someone. Although it is certainly true that Oleander is a rather potent poison, reading up on it, it would appear that the victim would first suffer severe abdominal cramping and nausea, and possibly vomiting. If he did vomit, he might eject enough of the material so that it wouldn't have killed him. If he didn't vomit, one might imagine him going to an ER and having his stomach pumped out. Perhaps Ingrid's boyfriend was so macho that he never would do such a thing. It just seems odd though.
7/10
My only criticism is the movie leaves too much to suggestion, but perhaps this was to preserve its PG-13 rating. Because it does leave too much to suggestion, several relationships are not explored satisfactorily. For example, it would have been interesting to see how Alison behaved when she loses her virginity with Ray, her first foster mother's boyfriend, and her emotions centering around it. With the recent exception of Unfaithful, American films fail to explore adequately human sexuality. Foreign films are way ahead of the American film industry in this regard, and it's really too bad. Y Tu Mamá También, Lucia y el Sexo, and Intimacy quickly come to mind. Maybe there's a lesson to be learned here.
I also have a comment. Given the premise of the movie, that Ingrid Magnussen creates a poisonous concoction from Oleander leaves, stalks, and flowers by steeping them in milk, I have to question whether this would be a very effective method to kill someone. Although it is certainly true that Oleander is a rather potent poison, reading up on it, it would appear that the victim would first suffer severe abdominal cramping and nausea, and possibly vomiting. If he did vomit, he might eject enough of the material so that it wouldn't have killed him. If he didn't vomit, one might imagine him going to an ER and having his stomach pumped out. Perhaps Ingrid's boyfriend was so macho that he never would do such a thing. It just seems odd though.
7/10