VividSimon Simply Perfect

Steineded How sad is this?

Nayan Gough A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Ariella Broughton It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

kelly-jay91 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.

dhainline1 In this sequel to "Flowers in the Attic" Cathy gets her revenge against her evil mother and grandmother. I just remember the actress who was Cathy was named Rose and I don't really remember the last name all that well! Cathy wants to have a normal life and she wants that for her older brother Chris and younger sister Carrie, but the horrible life she had at Foxworth Hall has her in its grip! Chris wants to move on with medical school and dating Sarah, the daughter of his instructor but he still has less than pure feelings for Cathy. Unfortunately for Sarah, he acts on those feelings and the relationship and potential marriage go to hell! Carrie, the sister who suffered the loss of her twin brother, Cory suffers in another way: she has not grown very tall, carries a doll around, and is teased mercilessly by the snobby girls at the boarding school she attends. Cathy is also abused by Julian, the son of her ballet instructor. She stays with him because she thinks he can make her a big star and the fact that she is carrying his unborn son is another factor. He dies later in a car crash. Into all of this, Corinne comes back as Bart Winslow's wife. Bart wants to have kids with her, but Corinne can never have children. Heather Graham brings her A-game with Corinne's selfishness and shallowness. Corinne hates caring for the scary grandmother of the kids who has had a stroke and is basically helpless. Ellen Burstyn is great as the grandmother who despite the stroke knows the evil things Corinne has done to her children and she keeps reminding her daughter of the fact. Corinne's evil and greed makes her deny poor Carrie and this drives the girl to eat arsenic laced donuts in the same way Cory did. This kills Carrie and Cathy has her revenge at last! She has an affair with Bart Winslow and conceives his child. She almost assaults the grandmother and comes out at Bart and Corinne's Christmas Party to tell the guests what Corinne did to her kids. The grandmother is of no help to her daughter and in the bedroom, she shows Corinne the trunk with little Cory's rotting corpse inside. This drives Corinne out of her tree and she thinks Chris her son is her husband. She sets fire to the house, killing her mother and Bart. At the end of the movie, the family of Chris and Cathy which includes 2 sons is now living in California under the name Dollanganger. The neighbors think they are so perfect and Corinne is locked up an insane asylum. This movie like the book is a guilty pleasure and all the characters were very good!

farishthas After watching LIfetime's attempt at the second novel to screen, it seems as if they are improving...Since I read petals on the wind first, it is my favorite book of the series, mostly because Cathy is brilliant at her revenge plotting against her mother! Unfortunately the movie doesn't pay enough homage to characters like Paul Sheffield but thats alright since we get to see Heather graham portray Corrine exquisitely! She has now proved to be the right choice to play this character, she was wicked and charming and nutty in all the right proportions! Nash and McIver were wonderful, their creepy chemistry was enthralling to say the least. I didn't enjoy the addition of Sarah too much but it was a wonder to see the adoration and torture in the eyes of Christopher for his love of Cathy. Julion was disappointing but entertaining nonetheless. Carrie's character though short lived was done quite well even though her death didn't really tug at my emotional strings.In conclusion I think that Nash, McIver and Graham were a delight and they are the main reason that I gave this movie a 7. I am intrigued to see how they will bring Jory and Bart's outlook to the screen in If There Be Thorns...

wes-connors In the January "Lifetime" TV Movie "Flowers in the Attic" (2014), three blonde siblings finally escaped from their attic prison in a Virginia mansion. They had been held there by fanatical grandmother Ellen Burstyn (as Olivia), who considered them "the Devil's spawn." The kid's self-absorbed mother Heather Graham (as Corrine) lent her blessings to the abduction. For this "Petals on the Wind" sequel story, the older actresses reprise their roles. However, the "Dollanganger" children have grown into Rose McIver (as Cathy), Wyatt Nash (as Christopher) and Bailey Buntain (as Carrie). Luck changed for the kids as they were quickly adopted by a wealthy man; they spent ten happy years in his custody. As you may recall, incest ran rampant in the Dollanganger family. Being trapped together while coming of age, the eldest two siblings became sexually intimate...We're not sure what happened during the missing ten years, but the goal was clearly for the children to lead a normal, non-incestuous life. This leads to a major weakness in the story. After "falling in love" during the first movie, "Cathy" and "Chris" live together for ten years. What happened then doesn't seem to match the ensuing story, which involves the very attractive sister and brother fighting off their sexual attraction. They simply pick up at the maturity level from a decade earlier, as if no living had occurred in ten years. After we see Ms. McIver and Mr. Nash try to settle down with other partners, the story moves on to cover McIver's attempt to get even with her mother – for the sinful neglect and imprisonment committed in the first movie. These are the two main story lines in this second in a series of adaptations of Virginia C. Andrews' popular novels...Out of the Attic, the characters move too quickly from one situation to the next. We know little about the ten year gap and are crammed with current events. While the original performers are missed, McIver and Nash are well-cast. Likewise attractive, young Miss Buntain is referred to as a "freak" by school-girls for looking weird and carrying a doll. In fact, she looks like a beautiful "girl woman" under model-worthy make-up and wigs. We don't see much of Ms. Burstyn and Ms. Graham is two dimensional. Those who appreciate the male physique will be delighted with Nash and two additional shirt-shedding hunks – amorous Dylan Bruce (as Bart Winslow) and aggressive Will Kemp (as Julian Marquet). Director Karen Moncrieff and her crew handle it all in the "soap opera" style. Perhaps "Lifetime" should return to "Peyton Place" – or somewhere close.***** Petals on the Wind (5/26/14) Karen Moncrieff ~ Rose McIver, Wyatt Nash, Heather Graham, Dylan Bruce