By now, there should be no question in anyone’s mind that Shailene Woodley is an actress on a rapid-fire journey to stardom. She’s enchanted us in enough films – “The Descendants,” ”The Spectacular Now,” ”The Fault in Our Stars” – that one less-than-stellar film won’t alter her upward trajectory.
Which is good, because “White Bird in a Blizzard” doesn’t do her many favors.
Actually, let’s amend that – those Woodley fans who are excited about the news that she sheds some clothes here will probably not care a whit about whether the film meets its lofty artistic goals.
As for the rest of us, well, it’s not that Woodley herself disappoints – as usual, she’s fresh, natural and always interesting to watch – but the film is such an uncomfortable oddity that its overall weirdness ultimately swallows her up a bit, too.
There’s a kernel of something tantalizing in “White Bird,” writer-director Gregg Araki’s highly stylized adaptation of the YA novel by Laura Kasischke about a teen girl discovering herself emotionally and sexually amid some serious family trauma. And few actors portray the awkwardness of teen self-discovery – and sometimes its grace – as well as Woodley.