White Oleander was written by Janet Fitch and directed, as a movie, by Billy Connolly. It tells the story of Astrid Magnussen and her mother Ingrid. Ingrid was always a strange mom, the beautiful ice princess. She hated her job, cutting out paste-ups for magazine--for she was a poet (but in the movie she had been a photographer "artist."" Astrid like to draw.) .
It seemed, often times that Ingrid was quite incapable of feeling and love. As for 12-year-old Astrid, she adored her mother, and felt guilty for holding her back from her dreams. Then, Barry Kolker came into their lives. He was ugly, and gorgeous Ingrid ignored him with disdain, but he soon charmed his way into her heart. Astrid and Ingrid had never been so happy before, but then one day, Barry just left. Ingrid went insane, and coldly calculated his death. .
She tortured him, followed him, deleted files on his computer, and broke into his house, and left springs of the poisonous and beautiful Oleander flower in her wake. .
Astrid was afraid for her and didn't want to kill Barry but when she called to warn him she remembered how he destroyed her strong mother, and stopped. Eventually, Ingrid mixed a deadly concotion of white oleander and DMSO to kill Barry. She was arrested and Child Services took the devested Astrid away. .
In the book, Astrid went a little crazy with longing for her mother and was forced to stay in some poorly run foster home for disabled kids.
In the movie, however, Astrid went straight to her next foster home, with Starr and her 4 kids Owen and Peter, who were also foster kids, and Davey and Carolee her own children. .
Starr used to be addicted to drugs and alcohol and was a topless dancer, but then she "found Jesus,"" as she would say. Now, she was clean and a religious fanatic, but she still dressed like a stripper, and lived with "Uncle Ray,"" a man who already had a wife of his own. .
Astrid never believed in anything but Starr soon had her baptized, to her mother's horror in jail, and she liked believing in something.
