They made Cathy weak and Chris stale.

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The whole confrontation between Corrine and the kids was a huge letdown. The only powerful scene with her and them (in this case, Cathy) was the "you left us in an attic for three years" and "you made me love him." Maybe she had development in POTW that makes more sense, but since they haven't re-aired that yet, I haven't seen it. But after FITA, Corrine felt really wasted in this movie.

The attic scene was very strange, too. You'd think Chris would've been horribly creeped out by her re-creating the attic, especially with her lame excuse about doing it for Cindy when she's clearly got three beds up there. But instead he was very blasé about the whole thing. If he'd actually been horrified by that, it would've made the other really powerful scene - when Chris locks Bart in the attic - that much more chilling to see it as his first reaction to dealing with the situation.

{Look at me and mah clevah nicksies.}

This movie had the feel of the book, but I didn't like the casting. The boy playing Bart was fine, but the rest of the cast I just wasn't feeling it.

I don't know why, but every single movie they have done from these books the actors have never felt right to me. And I did think Cathy was too weak here and Chris was so stiff, he was practically botoxed the entire movie. Not that they gave him much to do.

I think part of the problem with the book to movie translation is that we all have our own version of these characters in our heads, those of us who grew up with these books. But also, they just can never seem to cast the roles well. And the movie scripts always seem like these soggy over the top messes.

To be honest, I think the film was a mess. Cathy is important to the overall storyline, but "If There Be Thorns" was supposed to be narrated by Jory and Bart, and so Cathy appearing weak could be overlooked and accepted as the boys seeing the softness in their mother.

However from the time I read the book, there was one scene which I felt, if it was done wrong...it alone would doom the film. The moment I'm talking about is the pool confrontation, where Bart is pulling Cindy under the water, Jory finds him doing that and does the same to him...and he kicks Jory in the groin. It isn't that moment which is of pivotal importance...it's what happens next, when Cathy drags Bart to the attic and locks him up, and afterwards, Chris confronts her about it.

It's pivotal because up to that point, Cathy had been remarkably resilient to the legacy of being locked up in the attic...well, all things considered. And yet in that moment, we realize just how deeply Cathy was scarred, and we see the familiar pattern that comes with abuse: those abused as children are more likely to abuse their own children at some point.

It's so disappointing because although I typically can't stand Lifetime movies...I felt like the time had come for a movie series or trilogy that went beyond the original "Flowers in the Attic" film adaptation. "If There Be Thorns," in my opinion, was the best of the Dollanganger series...I even bought the DVD just to see this adaptation. Thankfully it only cost me $11!

I liked Cathy and Corrine's scene in the house where Cathy let loose on how Corrine robbed her of her childhood and threw away her love and made her love Chris. I loved their embrace in the barn when it looked like they are going to die.