I don’t understand the directional execution of White Bird in a Blizzard.
At its core, the film’s a thriller mixed with teenage sexual awakening, but then there’s a coming of age angle, a mystery angle, teenage drama, suburban self-liberation, wistful romantic development, psychological evaluation, family tensions and symbolic dream sequences all mismatched into one muddled mess. I’d relate the film to American Beauty, yet such comparison would be unfair; American Beauty had focus and understanding, stringing together what appeared to be several separate sub-plots by the end. Having multiple aspects could've been interesting for White Bird, yet its execution resembles smearing multiple paint colors into one grayish mess.
At its core, the film’s a thriller mixed with teenage sexual awakening, but then there’s a coming of age angle, a mystery angle, teenage drama, suburban self-liberation, wistful romantic development, psychological evaluation, family tensions and symbolic dream sequences all mismatched into one muddled mess. I’d relate the film to American Beauty, yet such comparison would be unfair; American Beauty had focus and understanding, stringing together what appeared to be several separate sub-plots by the end. Having multiple aspects could've been interesting for White Bird, yet its execution resembles smearing multiple paint colors into one grayish mess.
Despite some big names, the entire cast is quite forgettable thanks to their performances; both Eva Green and Christopher Meloni's acting are as stiff as their characters’ recycled personas. Shailene Woodley delivers one of the few fine performances as protagonist Kat, yet her character’s bland personality and wishy-washy attitude may conceal such praise. There’s also Kat's assorted group of friends, each pertaining to one or more stereotypes; there’s the dumb friend, fat friend, black friend, Asian friend, gay friend, etc… With little more to go for their personalities, White Bird bared more resemblance to a lousy sit-com rather than a thriller film.
The sequence of plot events happen strangely, with payoffs being either extra-predictable or quite underwhelming. Our protagonist doesn't mature at all (or if she does, it’s hardly noticeable) despite its sexual awakening theme, and the all too predictable twists end on a stale, overused note. Films before have used similar ideas to White Bird in a more effective manner. There was no reason for White Bird in a Blizzard to be made; it neither achieves anything innovative nor possesses any noteworthy reasons for seeing unless one wants to observe how not to mesh different genres into one film.
