White Oleander
Cast: Michelle Pfeiffer, Renée Zellweger, Robin Wright Penn, and Alison Lohman
Director: Peter Kosminsky
Writer: Janet Fitch (novel) and Mary Agner Donoghue (screenplay)
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The movie White Oleander centers on Astrid (Alison Lohman) who lives with her free-spirited and self-centered artist mother, Ingrid (Michelle Pfeiffer). In the beginning of the movie, Astrid and her mother are living together on Ingrid’s eccentric terms. Astrid doesn’t remember her father who left when Astrid was a baby.
The mother and daughter live together in compatibility when Astrid’s mother meets a new man, named Barry Kolker (Billy Connolly). Ingrid falls in love but ends up with a broken heart and kills Barry with a deadly posion from her favorite flower, White Oleander.
Ingrid is charged with first degree murder and sentenced to life in prison and Astrid is sent to a series of foster homes. 
Astrid’s first foster mother is Starr (Robin Wright Penn), a former stripper, drug addict, and alcoholic. Starr has two children of her own, and takes foster children as well. Starr is kind to Astrid at first and Astrid likes her and the other children as well.
But when Astrid becomes friend with Starr’s boyfriend, Ray (Cole Hauser), she gets jealous, starts drinking again and turns against Astrid. Astrid who was just interested in Ray as a friend at first, ends up having an affair with him. Starr finds out and in a drunken condition she shoots Astrid.
Astrid survives but is sent to the MacLaren Children’s Center (known as Mac), a community home for teenager without a placement. At the community home she meets Paul Trout (Patrick Fugit) and they become friends.
Next foster home is with a warmhearted and positive former actress named Claire Richards (Renée Zellweger) and her self-righteous husband, Ron (Noah Wyle). Astrid and Claire become found of each other, but when Ron leaves Claire, after reminding her that she doesn’t have a job and is a bad actress, she commits suicide by overdosing.
Astrid is heartbroken and sent back to Mac’s. The third fosterhome in three years is with the Russian immigrant Rena Grushenka (Svetlana Efremova). The heartbroken Astrid chooses Rena over better prospective foster parents because she doesn’t want to become part of a nuclear family. At Rena’s, Astrid begins to have memories of a woman named Annie.
Astrid continues to have contact with her mother in prison, but her bitterness toward her manipulative mother increases. Astrid’s mother and her lawyer plan to build up a new case for a retrial that depends on Astrid testifying that her mother did not kill Barry. Astrid makes the deal that she will testify in her mother’s favour if she answers questions about her father and Annie. It turns out that Annie was a babysitter, which Ingrid left Astrid with for over a year when she was a baby. At last Astrid tells her mother how damaged she has become and gives her a choice. Either Astrid will testify for her or she will return to being the person her mother knew her as…
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Astrid and Claire
Here is the scene where Astrid and Clarie first meet and how they get along.
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