White Orchid (2018) was written and directed by Steve Anderson. It stars Olivia Thirlby as Claire, an independent investigator who often works for the county department of social services.
A woman has been horribly butchered by someone. Of course, that's the job of the sheriff, not social services. However, in California, the law says that if there are no relatives, social services must investigate as well.
Claire takes the case, and travels to the site of the woman's death, and has access to the home she had rented. What follows next does, indeed, fall into the classic category of "girl detective." However, the way the movie plays out, there's much more to it than that.
The most striking part of the movie for me was how director Anderson and Olivia Thirlby managed Claire's transition from a quiet, almost mousy character into a highly feminine, desirable woman. Of course, Olivia Thirlby is strikingly beautiful, so the trick wasn't to make her attractive, but to make her unattractive at the beginning of the film. It couldn't have been easy, but they did it.
The movie is one of those films where at the end, you say, "OK--who was the dead woman, and who killed her? People walk out of the movie trying to make sense of it. Director Anderson was in the theater for Q&A, and he says that all the clues are there, but he wouldn't tell us the answer. (Of course he knows the answer--he wrote the script.)
OK--but even if you're not quite sure about the loose ends of the plot, the film holds your interest throughout. The California scenery is beautiful and the acting is excellent.
We saw this movie at the great Little Theatre as part of The Rochester High Falls Women's Film Festival. It won't work quite as well on the small screen, because you'll miss the glorious scenery. Even so, it's worth finding and seeing.
"What movie did they see?" This film has a terrible IMDb rating of 5.0, with 224 ratings. It's not a great movie that will be remembered forever, but it's much better than 5.0. I suggest you see it and decide for yourself.
