In 1988, 17-year-old Kate's (Sherlyn Woodley) mother Eve (Eva Green) disappeared. Eve and her husband Brock (Christopher Miloni) have been out of touch for years, and the relationship with her daughter is also strange, and she did not even leave a note on the day she disappeared. What is the truth?
After Eve's disappearance, Kate's boyfriend Phil (Hiro Fernandez) somehow always finds various excuses to escape Kate's needs, and Kate, who can't control the hormones of adolescence, finds the detective (Thomas Jane) who handles her mother's case as a lover, on the surface, Kate is not so concerned about her mother's disappearance, but some repressed emotions come up a few years later...
After her mother disappeared, Kate often had similar dreams at night, all of which were about seeing her naked mother in a pure white snow. Perhaps, her subconscious has already spelled out the real reason for her mother's disappearance, which is why there are those strange dreams, but as her friend said, Kate always deliberately ignores the things and statements that she does not want to face. And similar dreams keep coming back, perhaps also hinting at Kate's repressed trauma in her heart, despite saying that her mother is happier when she leaves her.
Three years later, when the truth finally came out, she found that she didn't know anyone. Not only did she not understand her mother, she originally thought that her father could not do anything, her boyfriend was superficial to how to explore how to dig is only superficial, and at this moment, she thought she was smart to understand that she was wrong in everything, and like many teenagers, she suddenly found that her parents were ordinary people, and they might be as helpless as the children.
In the end, she is completely different from the beginning of the film, and has truly become a mature college girl. It's just that her upbringing is much more brutal than that of other peers.
It is interesting that the film observes the parents' failed marriage from the perspective of the daughter, but unfortunately, the daughter's attitude towards her parents is very cold, and even many of the understandings come late, so the audience who sees the story from Kate's point of view will inevitably be affected by this alienated attitude.
In addition, I also hope that her mature thinking change can have more ink, which will make the audience more satisfied. A large paragraph in the middle of this film describes the growth of young girls, but the ending is completely focused on solving puzzles, and the adult theme in front of it suddenly breaks the line, which is a pity.
But what interested me most about White Bird in a Snowstorm was the complicated feelings in the mother-daughter relationship. A few years ago, her daughter Kate was still young, how simple the mother-daughter relationship was, how to know that when the daughter grew up, her youth reminded her mother of her old age, so that the mother was full of jealousy and bitterness when facing her daughter who had once loved.
Since the mother is indignant and disgusted with the femininity of her daughter, the departure of the mother seems to allow Kate to finally feel comfortable becoming a real woman, can seduce men, and even, because the father figure in the family is too weak, so she finds a tough guy image of her two rounds as a lover.
When Kate looked at herself in the mirror, she was so satisfied and proud, deeply satisfied with each curve, she was about to start enjoying countless pleasures; Eve had experienced this stage in the past, but could not go back, she knew that she would become more and more ugly and hanging, she would not find happiness, she would no longer be loved, the essence of life, beautiful appearance was so handed over to this family, cooked for disgusted men for more than ten years, worked hard for her daughter, and in the end she had nothing, and even felt that her daughter had become a competitor, just like the daughter's description of her mother. She said her mother would "stare at me as if I had stolen something from her."
During a four-person discussion of "where to eat dinner," Eve ended up yelling, "Why doesn't anyone listen to me?" Indeed, for a long time she was just an image and a tool, no one took what she said seriously, Eve lost confidence in her own existence, so the brighter and more attractive her daughter looked, the more she stepped on her sore spots.
Before Eve disappears, she is already engaged in a self-existent beast fight, Eve's flirtation with the young boy Phil represents a lot of meaning, she wants to prove that she is attractive and competitive with her daughter, wants to get revenge on her boring husband, wants to adjust her boring to crazy life. She seems ridiculous, but in fact she is very sad, because she can't win at all.
Sherlyn Woodley's acting skills have always been wonderful, and in "White Bird in the Snowstorm", it is no exception, and what is more special is that this role is closer to the adult role than before, and it is not very pleasing, and there are large-scale performances. Her seduction scene with Thomas Jane fully shows some of the embarrassment, shyness, and wildness of the buds waiting to erupt in the buds, which is very exciting.
Although Eva Green also plays very well, there is always a fire hidden in her eyes, but there is still a problem with this casting, that is, she looks too young, how can she be Woodley's mother, even if she has deliberately looked old in this film, but still can't hide Eva Green's young and bright appearance, people are too beautiful and troublesome.