White Bird in a Blizzard

As regular readers of this blog know, I am intrigued by Shailene Woodley. I think she's one of the best young actresses working today, with a great naturalistic style and an unconventional beauty. She's had some big hits lately, but everyone is allowed a stinker that disappears without a sight, and that is White Bird in a Blizzard.

The film was directed by Gregg Araki, who has made some great films, like Mysterious Skin. This is a misfire, although it is not terrible, mostly due to Woodley. She plays a 17-year-old girl (she's starting to get too old to play teenagers) who is fairly normal until her mother (Eva Green) disappears one day. She's left with her sad-sack father (Christopher Meloni), and they attempt to get on with their lives, realizing she's probably not coming back.

As the film points out, in flashback, Green was pretty nutty, so Woodley simply things she flaked and left, and reacts in a kind of petulant way, acting out with sexual behavior (she seduces the grizzled cop, Thomas Jane, who is handling the case). Her father, whom she always thought of as a wimp, begins to exhibit bizarre behavior, especially years later, when Woodley is in college.

As a character study of a girl going through a loss, White Bird in a Blizzard is interesting but unsatisfying. There are some glaring problems. Woodley has two friends, one an obese black girl (Gaboure Sidibe) and a flamboyantly gay man (Mark Indelicato) who seem straight out of the diversity casting office. Sidibe, who was so good in Precious, can hardly say a line in this film.

Secondly, anyone who has half a brain will see where it's going. Let's put it this way--anytime a freezer is prominently shown in a film, we know what will happen. There is a slight twist involving Woodley's high school boyfriend (Shiloh Fernandez), but anyone who knows Araki's work won't be totally shocked.

I admire Woodley for taking the role, considering she goes nude in graphic sex scenes, which is kind of brave these days for a young actress on the come, considering she certainly knows that stills will live on the Internet until the end of civilization. Here's hoping that her next project will be better.