Petals on the Wind (film)

Petals on the Wind is a 2014 Lifetime movie, starring Heather Graham, Rose McIver, Wyatt Nash, Bailey Buntain and Ellen Burstyn. It is based on the novel of the same name by V. C. Andrews, the second novel on the Dollanganger series. It premiered on Lifetime on May 26, 2014. The network announced on the premiere of the movie the developing of the following books of the Dollanganger series, If There Be Thorns and Seeds of Yesterday, both set to air in 2015.

Plot

Ten years after escaping from the attic, the surviving Dollanganger children - Cathy, Chris, and Carrie - attend the funeral of their adopted father, Paul Sheffield, who provided them the means to achieve their dreams. Still traumatized by their grandmother's abuse and their mother's betrayal, which led to the death of Carrie's twin, Cory, Cathy can't understand how a mother could betray her own children. Meanwhile, their grandmother, Olivia, is invalid due to having suffered a stroke and constantly shouts out to the servants that Corrine poisoned her children, but no one believes her. Corrine has avoided all contact with her children and begins to renovate Foxworth Hall so she can take full ownership of the mansion.

Cathy has become an aspiring ballet dancer, Chris is in medical school, and Carrie is enrolled in an elite high school but is constantly bullied for her small size. Cathy meets Julian Marquet, a fellow dancer who is instantly smitten with her, and Cathy finds him attractive. On their first date, he invites her to go to New York with him to try for the role of Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, which she accepts. Later that night, Cathy and Chris admit that they still harbor feelings for each other, give into their passion, and make love. Cathy, however, insists that they need to find others to love in order to live normal lives, and they can't repeat their parents sins. It is also revealed that Cathy was pregnant with Chris' child, conceived from their first sexual encounter in the attic, and miscarried. Although Chris says he can never love anyone but her, Cathy leaves for New York with Julian. Chris meets Sarah Reeves, the daughter of his physician mentor, and they begin a relationship.

During their time in New York, Cathy is physically and verbally abused by Julian, who grows jealous whenever she is with another male. He even deliberately drops her during try-outs and injures her so she won't be able to get the role. She tries to leave him, but he assaults her and threatens to kill her if she leaves him. She manages to attend Chris' graduation from medical school, however, and returns to Julian after he expresses remorse for how he treats her. He then helps her get the role of Juliet after placing glass in the shoes of the original dancer. Carrie, desperate to escape from the bullying at school, asks Cathy and Julian if she can stay with them, and they agree. During the performance, Chris catches Julian touching Carrie, and a violent fight occurs, which ends with Julian storming out and Cathy running after him. During this argument, with Julian driving, Cathy reveals that she is pregnant with his child. This distracts Julian and they get into a car crash, which kills him instantly but Cathy survives.

After the birth of her son, Jory, Cathy opens her own ballet school. Carrie meets and falls in love with a local minister named Alex, who quickly proposes to her. Carrie, however, questions if she should be a minister's wife and is still haunted by the words of evil from her grandmother. She runs into Corrine at a charity gathering to invite her to her wedding, but Corrine casually denies Carrie as her daughter. The next day, Cathy and Chris discover Carrie dead; she committed suicide by eating doughnuts laced with arsenic, the same poison that killed her twin. Enraged, Cathy vows to get revenge against her mother for everything she has done to them, even Chris tries to talk her out of it. Under the disguise of fixing the Sheffield estate, she hires her mother's new husband, Bart Winslow, as her attorney. Bart is immediately attracted to Cathy, who's plan is to seduce him to get back at Corrine, and they begin an affair. Chris proposes to Sarah, and she accepts. However, the day before the wedding, Chris admits to Cathy that he doesn't want to marry Sarah because he wants to be with her. Cathy says she still loves him but they need to move on with their lives, but end up sharing a passionate kiss, which Sarah witnesses. Horrified, she ends her relationship with Chris and rumors of the siblings start to spread.

Chris asks Cathy to come live with him in California so they can start a new life with Jory. But, Cathy reveals she is now pregnant with Bart's child and intends to finish what she started. He asks her if she loves Bart, which she says no and she loves Chris, who then decides to go with her to confront their mother. They sneak into Foxworth Hall on the day of its Christmas party. Cathy encounters her grandmother and takes the opportunity to vent her anger at her. Olivia is undeterred by Cathy's words, and tells her that while she can leave the family, Cathy will forever be known as the devil's spawn. During the party, Cathy reveals her identity as Corrine's daughter and her mother's crimes to the guests. Corrine denies it, but Bart is suspicious and Olivia refuses to defend her. Pressured by Olivia, Corrine finally admits everything, but insists she never intended to kill Cory and put them in the attic because her father would have rejected her. Cathy then revels that she is pregnant with Bart's child, much to his and Corrine's shock.

Corrine goes to Olivia's bedroom while Bart demands for Cathy to tell him why she seduced him to get back at his wife. Corrine blames Olivia for making her put the children in the attic and Olivia says that is because they are abominations. She gives Corrine a trunk of some of her old possessions, and Corrine is saddened to find the skeleton remains of Cory. Chris walks in, and Corrine has a mental breakdown; she mistakes Chris for his father and pleads with him to help hide Cory's body. In her madness, she sets the room on fire. Bart tries to save Olivia but they both die in the fire as Cathy and Chris watch Foxworth Hall burn to the ground. Six years later, Cathy and Chris have gotten married and are living in California with Jory and Bart Jr., under the surname Dollanganger. Corrine is deemed incompetent to stand trial for her crimes and is living in a mental hospital, where she constantly shouts out for her children.

Cast

• Heather Graham as Corrine Winslow
• Rose McIver as Cathy Dollanganger
• Wyatt Nash as Christopher "Chris" Dollanganger, Jr.
• Bailey Buntain as Carrie Dollanganger
• Nick Searcy as Dr. Reeves
• Dylan Bruce as Bart Winslow
• Will Kemp as Julian Marquet
• Whitney Hoy as Sarah Reeves
• Ellia English as Henny

Reception

Ratings

In its original televised airing, Petals on the Wind was watched by 3.42 million viewers, and had a rating of 1.2 in the 18-49 age demographic, down 37 percent from the 1.9 earned by Flowers .

Sequels

On the premiere of Petals on the Wind, Lifetime announced the production of the two following books on the Dollanganger series, If There Be Thorns and Seeds of Yesterday, both set to premiere in 2015.

External links

• Flowers in the Attic at IMDb