Review of Petals on the Wind (2014) by Francisco S — 23 Jan 2015

Despite Flowers in the Attic being a shallow adaptation of the source material, I had hopes that the sequel would improve.

The first thing that Petals on the Wind depicts is the Dollanganger family at the funeral of Dr. Paul Sheffield. Despite playing a major part in the source material of the story, the film adaptation decides to kill him off first thing and ignore the entire story about his relationship with Corrine's children, especially Cathy. The story about her relationship with Paul Sheffield makes up about a third of the story in Petals on the Wind, and the script of this adaptation decides to go and kill him off first thing. That is massively disrespectful to Virginia Andrews and fans of her work because it takes away so much of the importance from the original book. I expected it to remove some plot points, but nothing this major. They removed so many themes from the last film adaptation but kept the story fairly in fact, yet in Petals on the Wind where the story is so much more important with specific details, they cut out even more. This is just plain wrong. It all starts when Kayla Alpert's screenplay cuts out a third of the story and then Karen Moncrieff is left to desperately piece together the remains of the story. She structures the tale in a misguided fashion which ignores so many important concepts. It will leave viewers confused and asking questions which lack any kind of answer anywhere along the way. From there, the film changes characters and jumps between many plot dynamics at an inconsistent rate. For one thing, Benny is a mute and yet they couldn't even get that right. The relationships are ignored, plot points are skipped over and eventually I just had to give up hope that the film would be an honourable adaptation at all. It isn't even much of a stylish one because while Flowers in the Attic had the design for Foxworth Hall look correct, there is little strong about the scenery in Petals on the Wind. While the novel described Paul Sheffield's residence as a beautiful and valuable place, nothing looks good enough in Petals on the Wind. The scenery is generic and overly basic, and it brings no sense of spirit to the film in the wake of its weak plotting. The poor structure of everything ensures that there is no way for the story of Petals on the Wind to come out alive or structured as anything more than a scattered serious of disjointed vignettes which only connect through arbitrary melodramatic plot points. To quote Jay Sherman, it stinks.

Normally, watching a brother and sister engage in physical romance should be uncomfortable to watch. But because Petals on the Wind feels so artificial, it has little dramatic effect. It seems like something which normally happens which is not something anyone can honestly say about incestuous relationships, so the script fails to confront the drama of the material well at all.

The one thing which I can honestly say that I was impressed by in Petals on the Wind was the fact that while the story was terrible, the cast really did a strong job.

Rose McIver was really good in the leading role of Cathy. The film itself mischaracterizes her by jumping ahead 10 years and completely ignoring the coming of age themes that the book made her confront, and so she cannot work with the childish innocence of the character. But in terms of capturing the frail and damaged nature of Catherine "Cathy" Dollanganger, Rose McIver does a really good job. She never turns the character into a soap opera damsel in distress but rather conveys that she is damaged yet passionate and determined. She doesn't capture the vengeful nature of the character as described in the novel, but her passion and ability to create a strong chemistry with the surrounding cast is all good. She also has the right appearance for the character which makes it understandable how she is the product of her brother's affections more so than just on an emotional level. Frankly, for the standard of the film as a Lifetime TV movie adaptation of the novel, she is higher in quality than the film itsely. Rose McIver is a strong lead in Petals on the Wind, and she overshadows both Kiernan Shipka and Kristy Swanson as being the best actress to have ever played Catherine "Cathy" Dollanganger.

Wyatt Nash is also a perfect fit for his part as Christopher "Chris" Dollanganger. Building a strong chemistry with Rose McIver, Wyatt Nash does his part to capture the charm of the young man without forgetting to grasp a sense of his passionate chemistry with his family members. He has no problem creating complicated relationships with the cast members around him and maintaining a consistent sense of sophistication even as his character must deal with all kinds of tragedy. Wyatt Nash keeps his charms alive in Petals on the Wind, and interacts very well with Rose McIver.

Petals on the Wind gives us a greater examination if Corrine Foxworth in the way she has developed into a sadistic and self- centred woman that she truly is. And in doing so, Heather Graham also steps it up. Instead of taking such a casual approach to the material like last time, Heather Graham actually gets deeply involved in the character and the complicated emotions she faces due to all of her experiences, ensuring that the viewer is able to sympathise for her at times while hating her at others. Heather Graham puts more charisma into her performance this time around and improves on herself which is a strong step in the right direction for the series, especially when everything around her is stepping down.

Bailey Buntain delivers a decent supporting performance as Carrie Dollanganger. Without problem, she is able to project a sympathetically frail nature for her character and remains consistent in the part the entire time. With the right look for the character and an ability to handle the themes of her character's fear and damaged innocence really nicey. Bailey Buntain succeeds at developing her character over the course of the story, and she proves to end up with the one character who is close to being honoured by the film's script and takes the opportunity well.

In the role of Bart Winslow, Dylan Bruce is really dead on. While his role in the film is small, Dylan Bruce really gives it his all as he captures the subconscious emotions of lonliness and emptiness as the story progresses, then changing it around as he develops a strong chemistry with Rose McIver. When the story brings him into more complicated territory, he manages to play on his dramatic abilities well so that audiences really get a sense of sympathy for him. He does a really nice job in Petals on the Wind which is impressive considering his diminutive character.

The only cast member who doesn't really have much to do is Will Kemp. I hardly blame him because he is miscast in the part and doesn't have much of a character to play, but he gives it a shot and captures a certain edge to the character Julian Marquet. Still, his relevance to the story ends up being arbitrary and so there is really no character for him to work with.

Whitney Hoy also delivers a generic effort.

So Petals on the Wind has a talented cast to boast about, but with a poorly structured story that butchers its source material and insults its fans, it turns out to be worse than its predecessor at honouring Virginia Andrews' legacy.