| Overall Grade: |
C- |
|
| Story: |
C- |
|
|
| Acting: |
C |
|
|
| Direction: |
C+ |
|
|
| Visuals: |
C+ |
|
|
Did anyone say butchered?
by Paper Sadako (movies profile)
Nov 20, 2007
4
of
5 people found this review helpful
Book AND Movie Spoilers.
Like everyone and the planet hasn't already seen the movie and at least KNOWS about the books.
I'm trying to be courteous here.
.
..
...
....
...
..
.
..
...
....
...
..
.
..
...
....
...
..
.
Oh, this movie was HORRIBLE! Being a huge "real" VC Andrews fan, I can't believe she would endorse, (much less appear in a scene) of this dreadful movie.
See, the true beauty of the books is that even though the grandmother was right- the relationship between Christopher Foxworth (who changed his name to Dollanganger upon marrying his niece) and Corrine Foxworth was ...well, sick. As was the "implied" relationship between Chris and Cathy after their imprisonment.
Of course, the books tell the story of two children who grow into young adulthood with no model of attraction but eachother. They become the surrogate parents of the young twins and form this strange family unit where they become lose more and more of the "sibling" feeling, and develop more of a friendship and partnership.
The truly strange thing about the Dollanganger series is that just HEARING the overview of the story- a brother and sister fall in love, etc etc, it seems grotesque. But in the books it is woven in such a way that one hardly thinks of Chris and Cathy as anything but a man and woman who could not live without each other.
In the final book (before the prequel), Seeds of Yesterday, there is a letter from Cathy to her children (no, she had no children with Chris... calm down.) It never ceases to make me cry because it breaks down the entire series and justifies the ideas contained within.
There's a garden in the sky, waiting there for me. It's a garden that Chris and I imagined years ago, while we lay on a hard black slate roof and stared up at the stars.
He's up there, whispering in the winds to tell me that's where the purple grass grows. They're all up there waiting for me.
So, forgive me for being tired, too tired to stay. I have lived long enough, and can say my life was full of happiness as well as sadness. Though some might not see it that way.
(...)
The Dollanganger saga is over.
(...)
It was meant to be this way. I have no place to go but there. No one needs me more than Chris does.
But please don't ever say I failed in reaching my most important goal. I may have not been the prima ballerina I set out to be. Nor was I the perfect wife or mother- but I did manage to convince one person, at last, that he did have the right father.
And it wasn't too late, Bart.
It's never too late.
Purists, leave the movie alone. Unless you are willing to watch it as a campy 80's movie with NO attachment to the books WHATSOEVER! |
My Public Profile 
