FLOWERS IN THE ATTIC. Directed and written by Jeffrey Bloom; produced by Sy Lovin and Thomas Fries for New World Pictures. Starring Kristy Swanson, Jeb Stuart Adams, Victoria Tennant and Louise Fletcher. Rated PG-13 (subject matter).
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Sorry! I can't tell you how faithful this movie is to the best seller of the same title, since I haven't read it. But if the book is grim and depressing, with a simple, yet shocking, storyline, then I'd say the movie captures its flavor pretty well.
The sudden death of her husband, who was apparently substantially under-insured, leaves Mother (Tennant) penniless, with four children to raise. (Two are teenagers, and there is a 5- or 6-year-old set of twins.) Either unable, or unwilling, to go to work to support them, she decides to try and make amends with her fabulously wealthy parents. Years before, she did "something" to anger them and was disinherited.
Her father is an invalid, but her mother (Fletcher) is very much active and as full of venom and hatred as a cobra. She insists that the children be seen by no one, especially her husband, and keeps them locked up while their mother wins herself back into her father's good graces. The children do have access to an enormous attic, however, where they play and explore and try to pass the time before their fortunes are made.
Flowers in the Attic shows us the children's lives in merciless detail, while only giving us a snatch now and then of what the mother is doing. So we progress with the kids from simple awe and anxiety to outright terror and righteous anger when they realize that their imprisonment may just never end.
The sets of Flowers in the Attic fit its somber mood very well. I wouldn't have thought an estate so huge and medieval-looking existed in this country, but the exteriors were filmed in Ipswitch, Massachusetts. There's a lot of fog at night and very rarely any bright, sunny days there, apparently.
Since the children rarely venture from their room or the attic (there are a couple of escape attempts), as interesting as the place is, it gets pretty claustrophobic after a while. The cinematography helps with this feeling, by giving the scenes a misty, unreal look.
Unfortunately, most of the performances don't match the quality of the technical production, or even the story's odd, but frightening, power. Fletcher hasn't been this menacing since One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, but grandmother here isn't as restrained or complex a characterization as her Oscar-winning Big Nurse in the earlier movie.
Adams, as the older brother Chris, is the best of children, as he conveys his reluctance to believe evil of his mother, and his anguish when he can no longer deny it. The older sister Cathy (Swanson) is really the center of the story. She narrates the whole movie as a flashback, and we learn more about her private thoughts and feelings than those of the others. Swanson is quite attractive and is adequate, I suppose, in the role. A stronger actress in this part would have made for a better movie, though.
The mother's character is extremely important, but she's really not on screen much. Since Tennant, again, is adequate but no Barrymore, it's just as well that the plot calls for her to show up infrequently. The younger children aren't called upon to do much more than look pitiful, and they handle that chore well.
Flowers in the Attic is an interesting modern fairy tale. Actually it'a quite similar to Hansel and Gretel, that most frightening of the Grimm Brothers' tales—where children left on their own discover powers they never knew they had when they were safe with their parents.
December 9, 1987