FLOWERS IN THE ATTIC: A Doll By Any Other Name

The Lifetime movie Flowers in the Attic will debut this Saturday, January 18, bringing with it the same shocking storylines that caused controversy back in 1979 when the novel, as written by V.C. Andrews on which it was based, hit bookshelves.

Flowers in the Attic is the first book in the Dollanganger series by V.C. Andrews. In the decades since it was first published, the book has caused great dissent because of its depiction of child abuse and incest.

This made-for-TV adaptation seems to take great pains to stick to the source material – unlike the 1987 box office film that starred Oscar winner Louise Fletcher, Victoria Tennant and Kristy Swanson (who would later star in the film version of Buffy, the Vampire Slayer) as the three generations of the Foxworth family.

This latest version stars legendary actress Ellen Burystn as the Grandmother, Heather Graham (Boogie Nights) as her long-estranged daughter Corrine, Kiernan Shipka (Mad Men) as Corrine’s daughter Cathy, and newcomer Mason Dye as Cathy’s brother Christopher.

Opening in the late 1950’s the Dollanganger family are just what they seem to be: a picture perfect middle-class family with a nice home, a nice car and perfect features – they are all attractive with blonde hair and blue eyes. Patriarch Christopher (Chad Willett) is a loving husband and father, who just received a promotion at work, and Corrine (Graham) is the (seemingly) dutiful wife and mother to their four children: Christopher (Dye), Cathy (Shipka) and twins Carrie (newcomer Ava Telek) and Cory (newcomer Maxwell Kovach).

Alas, the family’s picture-perfect world collapses when Daddy Dollanganger is killed in a car accident on the night of his birthday party. What unravels after his unexpected death is a bizarre series of one catastrophe after another – despite the “good intentions” of mother Corrine.

The family moves to Virginia, seeking refuge at Foxworth Hall – the lavish home owned by Corrine’s parents: Olivia (Burstyn) and Malcolm Foxworth (the family’s real name, by the way). The children are ushered far up into Foxworth Hall in the middle of the night by their surly, unwelcoming grandmother, forced to share a bedroom that has only two beds and a stairway that leads up to the attic.

Over the course of what they were told would be just a short-time but ended up being over two years, the four children become virtual prisoners of their grandmother, existing only inside that bedroom and attic, never allowed outside or even allowed to open the blinds. They are given a strict set of rules to which they must adhere, or risk the wrath of their grandmother; and they soon learn a sordid truth about their parents.

To be honest, I have never read any books by V.C. Andrews, as I lived in a household where those kinds of stories would not have been permitted IF my parents had known anything about this particular author, which they didn’t; and I never saw the 1987 film or ever really had any inclination to learn anything about them. That being said, I found this depiction to be “spot-on” to the research I did on the author, the book series, and the previous film. However, the acting by newcomer Dye seemed a bit robotic but that was easily overshadowed by the menacing performances by Burstyn and Graham, who both portrayed their characters well; and the over-riding storylines and subject matter.

And, if viewers are expecting much in the way of a heavy-handed version of the incest between siblings Cathy and Christopher, this subject matter is actually handled rather delicately with a few kisses and one “the morning after” scene that shouldn’t offend the more sensitive viewers. In fact, the way that whole subject is played out in the film is that the love between the siblings is completely consensual even if there are doubts on both their parts.

Viewers of the BBC America phenom Orphan Black should pay close attention to the appearance by series regular Dylan Bruce, who plays Bart Winslow, old man Foxworth’s attorney and eventual second husband to Corrine.

Much like the book series, Flowers in the Attic depicts a very twisted and messed up family that allows its children to suffer unrelentingly for far too long based on warped religious beliefs on the part of the Grandmother and an overwhelming sense of entitlement on the part of Corrine.

Intrigued by the Dollangangers? Lifetime announced last week that they are already in development on a movie adaptation of the second novel in the series, Petals on the Wind. Screenwriter Kayla Alpert described the sequel as taking place 10 years after the first film, “and I’ll just say its a very juicy and compelling revenge drama.”

Flowers in the Attic premieres Saturday, January 18 at 8/7c on Lifetime.