Sorry, this movie sucks

just watch it!

A Disappointing Continuation

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

I got my hands on these novels when I was in early high school. My mother had owned them and I found them in a box in the basement and devoured them. As an adult, of course this series is a lot creepier than I though it was then. After watching the first in this series, Flowers in the Attic, and finding it to be not too far reaching from the original storyline, I had high hopes for the second, this installment, Petals on the Wind. Unfortunately, I was sorely disappointed.The fact that it opens up to Dr. Paul Scheffield's funeral was enough to send me digging through my bookshelves to make sure that I wasn't remembering everything wrong. Sure enough, Paul was just as big a part of that book as I had remembered. Not only did he take the three siblings in, he nearly married Cathy! Removing him from the movie's storyline did it a great injustice.Then there was the horrible job done of Cathy's career (in the books, she was going on world tours), Julian (they were married, he tried to destroy her feet, and after the accident - which Cathy was NOT in - he killed himself), Henny (she was mute!) Chris's turmoil (he was NEVER able to overcome Cathy - there was no Sarah in the books and that whole thing doesn't even fit with the story), Carrie's unhappiness (she was incredibly depressed during most of the book, and at the school, the girls left her bound, gagged, and blindfolded on a roof to die - she survived but broke her leg), and her death (Alex was not a minister to start with - Carrie had an ingrained fear of religion thanks to the grandmother), and Cathy's views of her mother (she did not try to reach out in love - she only wanted revenge in the books, and PLOTTED to steal her mother's husband). This wasn't just omitting parts of the story or changing little details to make a film watchable (think Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire). They had to completely rewrite entire chunks to make their botched adaptation work.I have not watched If There Be Thorns or Seeds of Yesterday yet, though I will. Hopefully they fare better than this one. It's an okay movie overall for a Lifetime.Just don't go into Petals on the Wind thinking it will be anything like the original novel, or you'll be heavily disappointed.

Petals on the WindThe best way to get revenge on a bad parent is to abuse them when they get senile.However the siblings in this drama have chosen to attack much earlier.A decade after their mother (Heather Graham) and grandmother (Ellen Burstyn) held them captive in the attic of Foxworth Hall, the surviving Dollanganger children: Cathy (Rose McIver), Chris (Wyatt Nash) and Carrie (Bailey Buntain), mourn the death of their adopted father.With a forbidden fire still burning for each other, Chris and Cathy unwillingly take-on unrelated lovers as they pursue careers in medicine and ballet, respectively.But a failed encounter with their estranged mother sets off a scheme to spoil her and her new husband's life. Based on the sequel to Flowers in the Attic, this latest installment in the Dollanganger series is as tawdry, melodramatic and campy as its predecessor. Furthermore, the best revenge an incestuous couple can get on their mother is having her baby-sit her two-headed grandchild. Yellow Lightvidiotreviews.blogspot.ca

I've read this series several times and had my reservations that the film could be as riveting as the novels. And this being the second in the series further made me leery. But it was all for no reason.... all this film was intriguing from start to finish. Heather Grahams role is done so well and really brings a lot to the screen and her character. This is such a sad horrifying story that is sad and compelling as much as it is horrifying. It dares to bring what many feel are taboo or shocking subjects....child abuse.....incest.....romantic triangles....I loved this and am hoping for the third book to be made into a movie. Well done and highly recommended .

This was absolutely awful. I guess it may pass if you haven't read the books but I would assume it would be rather hard to follow considering how choppy the movie was. They attempted to fit too much into much too little time. It should've been split into two separate movies. Everything was wrong, small and large. Let's start with the fact that they took away EVERYTHING involving Paul. The opening scene is his funeral and the timeline is all off. The movie seems confusing because Cathy seems to run away with a guy she has met once and then proceeds to let him abuse her, in the book she knows him for YEARS and he repeatedly tries to court her and then she runs away with him and marries him because she believes Paul has deceived her. Also, she DOES become a big dancer and thats part of why she is so hesitant to leave! She believes she will ruin her career that she has worked so hard to build. And I feel I should mention that while Julian is a good portrayal of cruelty in the movie, he never once apologizes to her and attempts to rectify it as he does in the movie. He eventually purposefully stomps on her toes breaking them to ruin her career, he does die as in the movie although she is not with and he dies later at the hospital after she tells him of the baby and he kills himself. Cathy's whole plot against her mother is accurate but she does love Bart, they play it out like it was just a ruse but she did fall for him.Carrie's storyline is similar to the book so I will give them that, she is abused by the girls at school and teased for her size although it is not right. Also she does hook up with Julian but this is found out right before her death and Chris never knew, and that whole fight scene was made for the movie. She does kill herself due to her mother denying her and the donuts were accurate although she is not dead when they find her, they take her to the hospital although she does not pull through.Christopher's entire thing was wrong. He did propose to Sarah. He never even dates any girl seriously because he can't get find anyone because he always wants Cathy. And no one ever knows about Christopher and Cathy except Julian suspects.The last point I will make is that Corinne was portrayed poorly. She does not purposefully kill her mother and she does not renovate Foxworth Hall. She actually had been following her children's lives. Cathy was a famous dancer and Corinne quite frequently went to her shows. And the grandmother did not feel remorse as they showed in both Flowers and Petals. The whole thing with Cory's body was eerie but no where near accurate.I can't even go on, the point is the movie was horrible, I loved the books and frankly the movie just didn't deliver. The movie could have been well executed but even the moments that were good were vastly overshadowed by the inaccuracies and the really big "wow" moments didn't have as much impact due to being rushed.