If
There Be Thorns (2015 telefilm/Lionsgate DVD)
Picture:
B- Sound: B- Extras: D Telefilm: C-
If
There Be Thorns
is a painful 2015 television film based on a later entry in VC
Andrews best-selling novel series and it took this long to be
produced for a reason. The third book in the series taking place six
years after the novel Petals
on the Wind (which
was also a TV film), Cathy and Chris are happily married and live in
California with Cathy's sons, Jory and Bart. Bart feels lonely and
outshone by his brother and parents. One day, a woman dressed in all
black moves into the mansion next door and invites Bart and Jory over
for tea and cookies, and explains that she is rich but has no family
except for her butler, John Amos. She takes a picture of them for
keepsake, and asks them to visit her more.
Jory
declines but Bart agrees after she promises to give him anything he
likes. Bart is curious why he has no other relatives and knows that
Chris is his stepfather, but Jory says that their maternal
grandmother is in a mental hospital and Chris' relatives are dead.
Corrine lavishes gifts and treats on Bart, including a pet python,
and tells him she is his grandmother, Corrine. In essence, he gets a
'sugar mama' at a young age and loves it.
John
Amos gives Bart a journal belonged to his great-grandfather, Malcolm,
and makes him promise to never reveal it to his family. Bart reads
how Malcolm referred to beautiful women as sinful and degrading,
which envelopes his mind. He soon starts calling his family 'devil's
spawn' and basically starts being a total brat. The series stars
Heather Graham (an actress we hardly see in anything good nowadays),
Jason Lewis, and Rachel Carpani.
As
for disc specs, the show is presented in standard definition with an
anamorphic 16 X 9/1.78 X 1 widescreen aspect ratio and a lossy Dolby
Digital 5.1 track. There is also a digital copy included.
If
you're interested in modern family dramas and bratty kids, then this
TV-PG rated 'dark' family film may be up your alley. For me though,
I'm going to pass on future installments.
No
extras.
-
James Harland Lockhart V
www.facebook.com/jhl5films
