White bird in a blizzard

Year of release : 2014

Run time : 1h31m

Genre : Thriller / Mystery / Drama

Cast : Shailene Woodley, Eva Green, Christopher Meloni, Thomas Jane, Shiloh Fernandez, Angela Bassett, Gabourey Sidibe, Sheryl Lee

The coming of age drama, written, directed, edited and co-produced by Gregg Araki is based on the novel of the same name by Laura Kasischke.

In the fall / winter of 1988, as Kat comes home from school, she is told by her father that her mother disappeared. At night, seeing how she didn’t come home, Kat asks her father if they should call the police, but he says her mother wouldn’t like them going through their things.

Kat starts having weird dreams about her mother, being cold or frozen in winter.

Kat starts thinking about her mother as she starts going to therapy, and remembers how her mother named her Kat for she always wanted a pet (I don’t understand why she didn’t get one).

In the first years of her life Kat and her mother were best friends, but that started changing as she started growing older, and apparently gained weight (we don’t see her fat, so we must take their word for it) .Once she lost the weight, hitting puberty, Kat started getting the idea her mother started hating her, as she was always drunk, and apparently didn’t know what personal space was, walking in on her while she was naked in the bathroom, with her boyfriend or sleeping, asking her weird questions .

They finally go to the police, and the detective assigned to the case tells them that if her mother wants to disappear, she can, and to keep an eye on the bank account. Her father puts fliers around town about her disappearance.

 

Kat remembers her mother as being very beautiful, like a movie star. She was a stay at home mom, who slowly got bored with her life, not having much to do, and feeling life passed her by or failed her. She slowly started resenting her husband, and didn’t shy away from showing it. Kat was surprised her mother didn’t like her father as apparently, at work, all the women loved him.

Having found a book about women who can’t have an org@sm in her mother’s drawer, Kat thinks that’s what was wrong with her mother (but maybe her husband didn’t show her affection, and maybe he was acting towards her the way her boyfriend acted towards her, who didn’t want to have s3x with her anymore).

Desperate to have s3x,as this is all she can think about since she had it with her boyfriend, her friends tell her she should do it with her detective. So she calls him saying she’s got info on her mother, and he asks her to go to his place, and they start an affair (she just turned 18, by the way, and he looks in his 40's).

In the spring of 1991, going home from college , she sees her detective boyfriend, who tells her his opinion about what happened to her mother, and she doesn’t like it. When she tells her friends about what the detective dared say to her, they tell her they too told her they thought her father k1lled her mother, but she blew them off!

I personally enjoyed the movie. It was filmed on these autumn colors and even turquoise shades. Most women, like Kat, her mother, and the therapist, wear turquoise.

I liked the vibe of the late ‘80’s, the houses, the clothes.

The soundtrack merges with the visuals creating a good blend.

The movie has a lot of talks about s3x, as Kat just discovered it, and wants it all the time, although her boyfriend doesn’t.

Kat narrates the story as she is at the therapist. She seems to resent her mother (who seemed deranged) and feel for her father.

I loved the twist at the end, which also explains the dreams she has about her mother trapped in winter. I think the title of the movie comes from that.

The actors were good.

The visual effects were good.

The soundtrack is one of the best I’ve ever heard.

The movie received mixed to positive reviews, with a 55% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and a 51 score on Metacritic.

The movie was a flop, making almost 400.000 dollars!

Viewer discretion is advised, as the movie contains mature content, from nudity to mature language.

The movie can be found for free, on the Dailymotion platform.

Rating : Worth a watch !