The White Orchid

The latest movie titled 'The White Orchid', produced for 2018 has just enough suspense to keep you watching all the way to the end credits. If you decide to abandon watching this film, you will not think much of it and it will be like eating carrot cake without the cream cheese filling and topping. In other words, boring! Stay with it to the end. Olivia Thirlby is well worth remembering after the movie ends. Nichelle Nichols is a surprise addition to the cast, especially for original Star Trek fans. The suspense vaguely reminds you of Hitchcock because it builds slowly and use of the San Francisco and Moro bay scenery. I made the mistake of ending my original viewing early, not this time. Make it to the end. You won't be disappointed!

The production shows an awareness of the Hitchcockian tropes and settings its dabbling with, but the movie just tends to play things a little too safe, robbing itself of a lot of potential tension and pacing that could have made it a really great psychosexual thriller. It also would have benefitted greatly from being less naturalistic at times, and instead providing a more edgy and suspenseful cinematic atmosphere to its proceedings. On the plus side, Olivia Thirlby was actually an interesting choice for the lead role and seemed to be up to the challenge of portraying a mousy "wallflower" undergoing a sexual awakening that leads to a profound change of character and over-confidence in the course of her investigation. It's just a shame her performance is within a film that doesn't quite know how to fully embrace the genre it wants to be a part of.

_The White Orchid_ has been dismissed by virtually everybody as a DePalma knockoff. That's an accurate assessment. It has overly stylized superficiality, gratuitous lesbian sex, a ridiculously implausible plot, a murder mystery----all DePalma hallmarks. Yet, why do so many people love DePalma's work but diss this this film? Is it somehow a lesser work because DePalma didn't make it? DePalma films are basically salacious trash. That's what we expect from him. And that's essentially what we get here. Perhaps it doesn't have the huge budget of a DePalma film, but it still looks great. There's an obvious homage to Hitchcock's _Vertigo_ in the scene at the Golden Gate bridge. DePalma always made it clear that Hitch was his biggest influence. Where I'm going here is that DePalma's films are pretty much the same as this one. It's sensationalistic Hollywood stuff. It's rather distasteful and it's great looking. And if you can tolerate all the artifice and the other nonsense, it has a good, twisty mystery. Is it worth a watch? I'll quote the Rotten Tomatoes blurb for 2 1/2 stars, appropriate for this movie and every DePalma movie I've ever seen: "Meh, it passed the time."

White Orchid is chock-full of talent like Olivia Thirlby, John Carroll Lynch, and Jennifer Beals. Especially keep your eyes out for Michael Rodrick, known for his work on Greenleaf, in the role of Dr. Hardin.

Different and entertaining. Way underrated.

Liked the story. Lead was a bit weak when she transitioned into the feme fatal. Jennifer Beals beautiful and commanding in her role. Ending was confusing.

Inept at generating any sort of tension.

I enjoyed this movie. It's stylish and sexy. Very suspensefu and well acted. great location. the buildup was executed well; although, the ending was a bit hurried and disappointing. all in all, i would still recommend it highly.

Don't cry because it's over, smile because it's happened

Plot is interesting. Lots of connections left out. You had to assume certain things happened, like you went for popcorn and missed a beat. Acting was marginal as was costuming- blonde wig looked like a helmet. But minor details ......Nice twist that wasnï¿ 1/2(TM)t clarified. I can only assume I figured it out.