On Hulu: “White Bird in a Blizzard”

The most underrated movie currently streaming on Hulu isn’t flooded with action-packed sequences and special effects, or the name recognition often needed to give us pause, or the promotion that draws viewers in numbers that better reflect a movie’s worth, but it has everything else. Based on the 1999 novel by Laura Kasischke, White Bird in a Blizzard has gone surprisingly unnoticed since its 2014 release. With performances that leave you wondering if the script was written exclusively for the actors that deliver them, a soundtrack that adds layer upon layer to the most significant moments at exactly the right time, writing so melodious that it sends shivers through your spine, and a story so frighteningly beautiful you could weep as if it’s your own, it’s a wonder that the remarkably produced film bypassed mainstream audiences.

Shailene Woodley portrays Katrina Connors, whose story is as moving as it is deep, although some might question how moved she really is, a result of how well Shailene tackles the character’s pompous apathy. Without question, the talented actor gives Gregg Araki’s screenplay justice, breathing out the foreboding narration in a melancholy hum that captures Katrina’s essence entirely.

Katrina is your typical teenage girl, rife with insecurities and judgments. She arrives home from school one day to find out that her mother (played by Eva Green) has vanished. She initially brushes it off as a fluke incident that will have her flighty mother walking through the door any second, with or without explanation. The impassive 17-year-old goes through a whirlwind of coming into her own as the realization that she’s never going to see her mother again finally sets in. More a coming-of-age tale than a suspenseful thriller, White Bird in a Blizzard largely focuses on Katrina’s attempt to navigate her way through her formative years while dealing with her mother’s disappearance.   

If you want a mystery, you’re getting one, but not in the traditional form that most mysteries are packaged in. Rather than following the investigation and pointing fingers every which way, there are times when the unknown whereabouts of Katrina’s mother are put aside completely, and Katrina moves forward as a confused teenager whose biggest concerns are no different than the next girl who’s stuck in the purgatory of adolescence. Her boyfriend (Shiloh Fernandez) no longer desires her sexually, she doesn’t know how to connect with her mundane father (Christopher Meloni), her sessions with her therapist (Angela Bassett) feel more like a chore than a relief, and her only escape from the harsh realities of living is her time spent with her two best friends (Gabourney Sidibe and Mark Indelicato), who are as bored with their lives in their small, unchanging town as Katrina is with hers. The gloomy protagonist keeps herself sane by lusting after the detective on her mother’s case (Thomas Jane) and pretending everything is fine.

But Katrina can no longer ignore her need for closure when images of her mother that she initially thought meaningless continually haunt her while she sleeps. Pleading for help in the midst of a snowstorm and bringing forth the eerie essence the movie might otherwise lack, Katrina’s mother makes it more and more difficult for her to assume she doesn’t want to be found.

Gripping, titillating, and ultimately shocking, White Bird in a Blizzard is a work of intrigue and deliverance that will jolt you in ways you’ll never see coming.

Purchase Laura Kasischke’s novel through Barnes & Noble

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/white-bird-in-a-blizzard-laura-kasischke/1102784642?ean=9780544465053

Check out the film’s original score

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/white-bird-in-a-blizzard-harold-budd/28229117?ean=0780163443424