Petals on the Wind (film)

Petals on the Wind is a 2014 Lifetime movie sequel to the 2014 adaptation Flowers in the Attic, 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 a good home and the means to achieve their dreams after having nowhere to go. 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 do such a thing to 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.

During the past decade, 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, and finds herself attracted to him. On their first date, he invites her to go to New York with him to try for a leading in Romeo and Juliet, which she accepts. Later that night, Cathy and Chris admit that they still have feelings for each other and give into their passion, making love. Cathy, however, insists that they can't be together and repeat their parents mistakes and need to find others to love in order to live normal lives. During the conversation, it is revealed that Cathy was pregnant with Chris' child, conceived from their first sexual encounter in the attic, but miscarried. Although Chris says he can never love anyone but her, Cathy soon leaves for New York with Julian. After Cathy's departure, Chris meets the daughter of his physician, Sarah Reeves, and they begin a relationship.

During her time in New York, Cathy's relationship with Julian quickly deteriorates as he begins physically and verbally abusing her and becoming possessive whenever she is with another man. He even deliberately drops her during try-outs, injuring her, so she won't be able to get her desired role in the play. She tries to leave him, but he threatens to kill her and Chris if she does. She manages to attend Chris' graduation from medical school, who is suspicious of her black eye, and returns to Julian after he expresses remorse for how he has treated her. He then helps her get the role of Juliet after placing glass in the shoes of the original chosen 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 fondling Carrie backstage and a violent confrontation occurs, which ends with Julian storming out and Cathy running after him. As he furiously drives away from the scene, Cathy reveals that she is pregnant with his child. Before he can react, they get into a car crash which instantly kills Julian, but Cathy manages to miraculously survive.

Ten months later, after the birth of her son Jory, Cathy opens up her own ballet school. Carrie meets and falls in love with a local minister named Alex, who proposes to her. Carrie, however, questions if she should be a minister's wife since she is still haunted by the abuse from her grandmother. However, a pep talk with Cathy manages to convince her to be happy in life. Carrie 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 has committed suicide by eating doughnuts laced with arsenic, the same manner used to kill her twin. Enraged, Cathy is more determined to exact revenge against her mother. Under the disguise of fixing the Sheffield estate, she hires her mother's husband, Bart Winslow, as her attorney. Bart is immediately attracted to Cathy, whose plan is to seduce him to get back at Corrine, and they begin an affair. Meanwhile, Chris proposes to Sarah and she happily accepts. However, the day before the wedding, Chris admits to Cathy that he doesn't want to truly marry Sarah because he still wants to be with her. Cathy insists that, while she still loves him, they need to move on with their lives. Despite this, they end up sharing a passionate kiss, which Sarah horrifically walks in on. After this, Sarah ends her engagement to Chris and rumors of the siblings start to spread, effectively ending Chris' career.

With nothing left to stay for, Chris asks Cathy to come start a new life with him in California, where no one will know them, along with her son Jory. However, Cathy reveals that she is pregnant with Bart's child and intends to finish what she started. Chris decides to go with her to finally confront their mother once and for all and they sneak into Foxworth Hall on the day of its Christmas party. After arriving, Cathy encounters her grandmother and confronts her about her religious hypocrisy and her unjustified abuse towards her and her siblings. Undeterred by her words, Olivia tells her that while she can leave the family, she will forever be "the devil's spawn". During the party, Cathy reveals her identity as Corrine's daughter and her mother's crimes to the stunned guests. Despite Corrine's denial about knowing Cathy, Bart is suspicious and Olivia refuses to defend her. Pressured by Olivia, Corrine finally admits to everything, but insists she never intended to kill Cory and put them in the attic because her father would have rejected her and left her out of his will. Cathy then publicly reveals her pregnancy caused by Bart, leaving everyone in further shock.

Corrine goes to Olivia's bedroom while Bart demands for Cathy to explain why she seduced him to get back at Corrine, who tries to explain that while she cares for him, she did this for reasons he cannot understand. Meanwhile, Corrine casts the blame of her children's time in the attic on Olivia, who instructed her to do it. Olivia then gives Corrine a trunk of her old possessions and Corrine is saddened to find the skeletal remains of Cory. Chris walks in as Corrine has a mental breakdown, mistaking him for his father and pleads with him to help hide Cory's body and run away. In her madness, she sets the room and Olivia on fire. Bart overhears her screams and 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 are now married and happily 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

• Petals on the Wind at IMDb