V.C. Andrews' Heaven

If you read the books and enjoyed them. DO NOT WATCH THE MOVIES. They barely follow the books, the movies stories/plots are horrible and choppy and weird...and they changed the oddest details. No spoilers, I'll let you find out for yourself if you are strong enough to endure these...terrible movies. These movies literally hurt my feelings, but they did make me want to re-read the entire series again for the millionth time.

Sidenote my review has zero to do with the actors or the acting. Some of the lines were cringe worthy but all in all they did their jobs.

Sidenote my review has zero to do with the actors or the acting. Some of the lines were cringe worthy but all in all they did their jobs.

Here's the sad truth. Jason Priestley and Kelly Rutherford are much better at the craft of acting than the performances the give in this series. Why they are delivering their lines in such horrific fashion is beyond my comprehension. Did the director say, "Deliver it like you're brand new to the craft."? As for the other actors, I had low expectations. But it's really sad to watch pros utterly bomb in from of the camera.

You're ruining V. C. Andrews works. If you're going to use her material then stick to it. Heaven Leigh Castel was the dark angel because she had dark black hair and was the picture image of her mother EXCEPT the hair. Reading comprehension has gone down the drain. At least now I understand why we have all these remakes, y'all can't write even when it's been already wrote for you. If you're a fan of Miss Andrews just don't. Tgese could have been written without the use of her name. Just call it something else and name your own characters and you'll have your own story because none of this is the Castel series. You've veered so far off from beginning to end it's not even funny anymore.

There are a lot of issues with this adaption of a fantastic book. The acting is ok but the actress playing heaven is somewhat stagnant and lacks emotional range.

The other issue is the actresses chosen to play Leigh, heaven and fanny, whilst lovely, are not attractive enough to play the characters they are supposed to be playing. Not that these women are in any way unattractive, but heaven and Leigh are said to be absolutely stunning in addition to Leigh being blonde like Jillian and heaven is certainly not a redhead.

The character of kitty Denison was also very disappointing to me. She is described as red headed, voluptuous and callous in the books, not a blonde sweet as pie stick figure that occasionally looks daggers rather than the constant violent beatings in the book.

The other issue I had is the sets. Farthingale manor is nowhere near as grand as described in the books, and the cabin the casteel family live in is far too modern, large, filled with furniture and well maintained rather than the dingy shack in the book that makes heaven's story that much more incredible.

So much was left out of the movie from the books that the whole mood is gone and this feels more like a bold and the beautiful episode at times. We also don't see enough of heaven's introduction to her new wealthy life.

Now onto the positives.

Jason priestly was a great tony, and Jillian was well acted. Fanny and heaven were too stiff and underwhelming for me but they had an alright delivery. For a stand alone movie it's ok, but as a tribute to the book it was upsetting and not recognizable apart from the characters names.

This is literally the worst movie ever made. The acting is awful. The writing and plot make zero sense. The characters are so bad. I don't know how this got made. If you can't laugh at it, there's no point. Seriously is so nonsensical I don't even know where to begin. I feel like the only ones to blame for this piece of crap are the producers, and they should be run out of Hollywood on a rail for this thing existing. Worst most horrific thing that has ever been produced, I don't think even the 1986 Flowers in the Attic is worse than this thing. I cannot believe it's gotten above one star ever. So very, very awful.