Review of Flowers in the Attic (2014) by Nick P — 25 Jul 2014

I give it props for being more faithful to the controversial novel, but with Lifetime's lack of effort and with one-dimensional characters, Flowers in the Attic is as truthful as it is, but doesn't give much else.

Most of the cast needed acting lessons or they should have cast better, well-known actors for the protagonists. Graham, as glamorous as she looks, she makes no depth or creativity with the role of Corrine, wasting it on her soft voice and wide eyes that doesn't say manipulative, but inexperienced. Kiernan Shipka, portraying Cathy, was acting as though she was in a middle school play. Mason Dye is too monotone, seeming as if he was struggling to give some kind of emotion and instead makes Christopher look like a wuss. Ellen Burstyn is the only one to stick to her role and knows to make strong and believable (though I wish she had been the monster she was portrayed in the novel).

The writing suffers from lack of imagination despite trying to be fancy but fails nonetheless. This is neither scary nor meaningful and the scenes where it was supposed to be intense, it was either almost laughable, or just corny. This could have been the TV Movie Event of the Season, but unfortunately, Lifetime doesn't know how to make anything very strong and that's pretty much all of the time.