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Admirable film.

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Blistering performances.

If you watch the original, and compare both films, you will notice the 2nd film seems to have a cheaper budget, its rushed, acting is poor, and the film ambiance is not there.. its seems as though its rushed. the original has you feeling its real, a better story and more detail.. the new one is badly written, a lot of original story is missing, and the sets look like set, rather than the feeling you get from the original...the closeness to detail is missing which makes a story, the connection between bro and sister does not feel right, and if they are going to make a set, make it so its close to the original..when you watch both, i feel you will agree with me that the first film is much better.

I was looking forward to this "Flowers in the Attic" movie as one that would follow the book to the letter with the incest and scary grandmother. It did with the incest, but Ellen Burstyn could never be mistaken for the tall, rawboned, threatening grandmother from the book! Louise Fletcher was born to play the Grandmother! In the book, Cory and Carrie, the small twins were terrified of the grandmother. They would never have gone up to her like this movie's version of Cory and Carrie! As for Cathy, I thought Kiernan Shipka brought a vulnerable strength to Cathy and like the Cathy in the book, she was smart, stubborn, and in regards to Corinne, her mother could smell a rat.

My wife who read the book many years ago was looking forward to this film adaptation. She informs me that the film was faithful to the book.As for me I probably not the target audience for this Lifetime Original Movie. Its mainly targeted at a female audience and despite the star casting of Ellen Burstyn, it has made for TV written all over it and the largely interior sets very much displays its low budget if glossy origins.The film is about a group of four children locked in an attic in the care of their stern and wicked grandmother while their glamorous mother (Heather Graham) tries to reconcile with her father and inherit his money. Over time the two older siblings embark on an incestuous relationship and discover that there mother has abandoned them and worse they are superfluous to her new life and they plan to escape.The film is plain, old fashioned, even a tad hammy. Burstyn imbues her character with some emotions and care towards her grandchildren but in the main she is a harridan. Graham starts of as the caring mother but over time she has entered her own glamorous world and you get the feeling she cares less about her kids.The younger children play their parts well, the older children did not convince. They did not look like kids locked up in an attic, malnourished, living in a troubled existence.

I believe I have seen the original Flowers In The Attic film but its been years! Its been even longer since I read the book. However, I know the story well and it is truly a brilliant and gripping story with underlying tones of incest, abuse and religious fanaticism. I think the story is due for a re-telling and under the right direction and writing should be a stone cold success. Lifetime decided they could do it and you know I won't lie...the film is watchable. Somehow I found it gripping enough to stay with it and I didn't hate it. Some reviewers have called it "watered down" and I think that's a huge understatement. It is very watered down and still covers some very taboo areas but the performances, nearly all of them, are so cheesy and "Little Theater"-esque that its hard to say the film "good" necessarily. I think its just the original story that makes this so watchable. VC Andrews was a brilliant writer and its easy to become enamoured with her stories. The film goes from a story about children being held captive to a Blue Lagoon type romance between brother and sister that is simply hard to believe or accept. This rendition of the story is full of holes that make little sense and they do nothing to paint over.I will start with Heather Graham who I have always been sort of indifferent towards. She is a decent actress that I've never really liked nor disliked. Honestly, she's sort of awful in this. She seems ridiculous and delivers her lines with such excruciating blandness that she literally is laughable in a very dark, serious film. Not to be outdone, I'm afraid to say the older children are not much better. Kiernan Shipka and Mason Dye have some good scenes (and believe me it gets awkward) but they just seem so stiff and cheesy in their line delivery. I don't suppose its a great script but they don't do anything with it that's for certain. The only thing I can say is that they're campy performances make the entire film seem even more awkward which actually works in the favour of making this more watchable. Odd but true. Ava Telek and Maxwell Kovach are actually pretty good in small roles as the younger siblings. Thankfully they always manage to keep them out of the more awkward and abusive scenes. Ellen Burstyn should really be the saving grace to this film. She is a legend and I will say she easily gives the best performance but that isn't saying much amongst this cast. I actually found they underused Burstyn in a lot of ways but she definitely gives an edge to the role but I still think it could have been more.There is so much content here to this story and I think Lifetime spent FAR too much time focusing on the incestuous relationship between Chris and Cathy. I know they were purposely trying to be shocking and water cooler type viewing but it stumbles and misses the mark with so many other great things in this story. The musical score for the film is really good, haunting and noticeable and drives the story forward. The redeeming qualities of this film are not unnoticed. Towards the end there is a lot of emotion, the campier performances get slightly better and some of that original story that rips your heart out is certainly present. At times I thought this would be a total laughable write off and then I would find myself being shocked and on the edge of my seat. Somehow, they pull it off but the missed potential should not go unmentioned. I think its good they got a woman director, Deborah Chow, but someone with more experience would have helmed a much better film. There are a lot of unanswered plot holes, and things they rush over far too quickly but it is what it is and this is what we have. I'm actually anxious to go back and watch the original film now. And to prove this wasn't a total write off...for some unknown reason I was pleased to hear Lifetime was doing the sequel film in a month or so. Maybe this film will find a place in cult history after all. 7/10