My Sweet Audrina

Plot synopsis:
Audrina Adare claims she is seven years old when the novel opens, although it is later revealed that Audrina's memory is unreliable. Audrina lives at Whitefern, a Victorian Era mansion, with her father Damian, mother Lucietta, her aunt Ellsbeth and her cousin Vera. The family takes special care to keep Audrina unaware of precise dates, including that of her own birthday—although Audrina knows she was born on the ninth of September, she is frequently confused about the exact passage of time, leading Vera to mock her for being insane. Audrina's father, however, is convinced that Audrina "walks in her own time space." Nine years before Audrina was born, her elder sister—also named Audrina and also born on September the ninth—was raped and murdered in the woods on her ninth birthday. Damian tells her stories about his "first and best Audrina" and convinces the younger Audrina that, by a process of self-hypnosis (which includes going into the first Audrina's old bedroom and rocking in her rocking chair), she can gain all of her memories and become just as beloved and special as she was, which is what Audrina wants more than anything else in the world.
Audrina lives in virtual isolation, her only real contact with the outside world being her older cousin, Vera, who despises Audrina. Vera claims that Audrina stole her place in Damian's affection and that the "second and worst" Audrina will never be as special or wonderful as the first and best. Vera, a habitual liar and borderline nymphomaniac, proves early on that she will stop at nothing to take anything that Audrina loves. Audrina, conversely, is haunted by dreams of her dead sister's rape and is terrified of sex and men. Vera takes great pleasure in taunting Audrina, and is hell-bent on gaining Damian's affections, such as constantly breaking bones to catch attention, which bothers Audrina a great deal.
When she is seven, Audrina meets Arden Lowe and his mother Billie, a former ice skater who is now an amputee, having lost both her legs. Billie and Arden have moved into the groundkeeper's cottage in the woods where the first Audrina died. Although she fears the woods, Audrina is willing to brave them to see Billie and Arden, and gradually Damian consents to Audrina's visits. Meanwhile, Lucietta, is pregnant again. The family calls Mrs. Allismore, a psychic, to come and predict the baby's gender. They are horrified when the woman predicts the child is neither male nor female, although Vera calmly states that it is fitting that a new "freak" would join the family. On Audrina's ninth birthday, Lucietta (six months pregnant) goes into early labor but dies in childbirth; the baby is a girl and is named Sylvia.
To keep Lucietta's memory alive, Audrina takes piano lessons alongside Vera at Lamar Rensdale's home. More than two years after her birth, Sylvia finally comes home from the hospital and turns out to be mentally challenged. Audrina is tasked by her father to take care of Sylvia. Audrina complains to her piano teacher Lamar about not being allowed to go to school —he intervenes and Audrina is finally allowed to go to school, with Ellsbeth begrudgingly agreeing to care for Sylvia. A couple years later, Audrina discovers an affair going on between Lamar and Vera and that Vera is pregnant. When Vera finds out Audrina knows about the affair, she angrily confronts her and fights with her, and Vera has a miscarriage. The next day, she leaves town with Lamar Rensdale. Vera leaves a note stating that she is, in fact, Audrina's paternal half-sister, due to an affair that Ellsbeth had with Damian before he met Lucietta. Damian does not deny any of this and says Vera's departure is "good riddance." Audrina is upset he has acted so horribly towards his own daughter, but Damian says Vera hates them all and would destroy them, given the chance. Sadly, even Ellsbeth admits he is right.
Time passes, and shortly after she turns eighteen, Audrina discovers that Damian and Ellsbeth are lovers again; however, tragedy strikes again when Ellsbeth threatens to leave Damian because he will not let her go and help Vera (who is alone after Lamar Rensdale has committed suicide). She and Damian seem to work it out, but the next morning she is found dead from a mysterious fall down the inside stairs.
In the confusion following Ellsbeth's death, Audrina elopes with Arden, hoping to escape her controlling father, taking Sylvia with her. Still not prepared for sexual intimacy, however, her wedding night goes terribly wrong. When the newlyweds return from their disastrous honeymoon, they find that Damian has won over Arden's mother and invited her to live with them at Whitefern. He also offers Arden a job at his company, since Arden has not been able to find work. Audrina is upset at how her father has manipulated events to keep control over her life, and disappointed that Billie has been "tricked" by Damian into believing he is wonderful and kind. She does want Billie and Arden to be happy though, so she tries to create a peaceful life. Things seem okay until Vera returns. Damian orders her to leave, but Billie is heart-broken by his cold-heartedness and convinces him to let Vera stay for a while. It is not long before Vera attempts to seduce Arden.
Not long after Vera's arrival, Audrina (and later Vera) discovers that Billie and Damian have become lovers. At first, Audrina is disgusted and attempts to persuade Billie to leave, saying her father only knows how to ruin the lives of the women he loves. Billie says her father has made her feel like a woman again and Audrina comes to accept they are happy. Tragedy strikes, however, when Billie falls down the same steps and dies. Audrina suspects that Sylvia might have pushed Billie, as she always liked and wanted the cart/wheelie board that Billie used to get around, but she shelters Sylvia from accusation.
Depressed and disillusioned, Audrina pulls away from Arden and Sylvia; during this time, Vera continues her seduction of Arden and they begin an affair. At first, Audrina does not care, but then her love and sexuality is finally awakened and she tells Arden that she doesn't want to lose him to Vera after losing so many other things. They spend the first happy night of their marriage together. When she awakens in the night and checks on Sylvia, she somehow finds herself in the first Audrina's room, and for the first time in many years, she sits in the rocking chair. She has some clear visions of the day the first Audrina died, which include Arden being there in the woods and running away. Confused and upset, she heads back toward her bedroom to confront Arden, and in the darkened hallway she is pushed down the stairs by an unseen assailant. She survives, but falls into a coma, during which she can hear others speak but cannot speak or move herself. In this state, she overhears that Vera and Arden are lovers again, as Arden is distraught and "needs" Vera. Vera also tries to convince Arden to disconnect Audrina's life-support, saying Audrina will never recover and she would not want to live like this. With Sylvia's help, Audrina awakens and escapes Vera. Her near-death experience convinces her that she cannot die without learning the secret of the first and best Audrina.
Audrina is angry with Arden, and wants Vera out of the house. She also confronts her father and demands he tell her the truth about her older sister's death. Damian relents, confessing that the first and best Audrina never existed. It was Audrina herself who was gang-raped in the woods. Because her father had always told her she was pure and good, unlike the evil and dirty Vera, the rape left her so traumatized that she attempted suicide. In an attempt to save Audrina from herself, Damian subjected her to electro-convulsive therapy, trying to erase the memory of the rape. Seeing his daughter strapped down and subjected to electric shock was too much for Damian to bear, leading him to try and heal her himself. Following Damian's lead, the family conspired to convince Audrina that she was two years younger than she really was, and that the rape didn't happen to her but to an older sister who died before she was born. Eventually the repetition of this story worked and Audrina believed it, explaining her unreliable memory. Since the family deliberately changed the clocks in the house and also ripped off calendar days at random, her sense of time was also altered. As Audrina listens to her father's tale, she remembers seeing Arden there and realizes he witnessed the rape but ran away in the face of Audrina's older and stronger assailants, meaning he also knew who she really was all these years but kept the secret.
As Damian is relaying all of this to Audrina, Vera appears in the doorway. Upon seeing Vera, Audrina is flooded with clear memories of the day she was attacked and realizes that Vera was the only other person who knew she would be coming home through the woods that day, and also knew how to get to the path. Audrina concludes it must have been Vera who told the boys where to find her that day. She accuses Vera of doing this out of jealousy. Vera denies being involved but Damian believes Audrina and lashes out at Vera. Vera's reaction suggests she is in fact guilty, but when Damian curses her she accuses him in turn of never acknowledging her as his daughter and always favoring Audrina over her, even though Vera is the one who is more like him. She tells Damian that it is his own fault that Audrina was raped. Infuriated, Damian rushes at her. When Vera turns to run she slips and falls down the stairs, later dying of her numerous injuries.
Heartbroken and betrayed, Audrina decides to take herself and Sylvia away from Whitefern, as she is convinced that nothing can flourish in this house but pain and tragedy. She is willing to leave her father and Arden behind if it means escaping her past and the fate of her mother and half-sister. Audrina says her final good-byes, but Sylvia refuses to leave. Her sister's simple words of "home, Audrina, home" destroy Audrina's will to escape. She tries to still leave by herself, but realizes that where there is love, there can be forgiveness and the promise of a fresh start. She decides to stay and replace the painful memories with new memories forged on honesty and the deep abiding love of family. She now finally feels like the loving "first" Audrina she has always strived to be.

Tags: flashback

Review:
A Pretty Mess.
Once again, Lifetime TV attempts to adapt a novel by the much loved cult author V.C. Andrews.
The Dollanganger series was a mixed bag, successful in some ways, but failing when they made alterations to the source material.
"My Sweet Audrina" falls victim to the same kind of amateurish "tweaking" of the original story.To be fair, Lifetime didn't have so much to work with, as this novel wasn't really the author's best work, unlike the Dollanganger series, which was a huge success all over the world.
This film is successful on some levels, such as the set design and cinematography being really gorgeous, as well as the mostly unknown cast.
The house in which the drama takes place is a visual treat that will please fans of Gothic and romantic architecture.
I just wish the script had been more like the novel.
Yes, it is a rather strange book, and I imagine Lifetime didn't want to gamble on something that would put off their usual audience.
So what we get is less of a Gothic horror/mystery, and more of an erotic thriller/soap opera production that Lifetime TV is known to produce.
What a shame; the books were immensely popular, and the movie could have garnered more attention if it had been a bit more unique and daring.
As it stands, "My Sweet Audrina" is still worth a look as a curiosity piece for fans of the V.C. Andrews books.
It's surprising that this weird book was ever made into a movie in the first place..
There's Something about Audrina.
When she was nine-years-old, something awful happened to Audrina.
This character is referred to as "the first Audrina." The tragedy has caused everyone to go crazy.
The parents have another Audrina and try to protect her from the same awfulness by secluding her in the family mansion.
This "second Audrina" is home-schooled.
Also, she is forbidden to associate with the surrounding community.
However, when a sexy piano teacher offers lessons, brooding papa James Tupper (as Damian Adare) lets the alluring young India Eisley (as Audrina) share the handsome man's piano seat.
Strange.
Modestly costumed, but in sultry make-up, Ms. Eisley's only friend is sisterly sexpot Tess Atkins (as Vera).
Finally, although he supposedly only knows her as the village freak, muscular blond William Moseley (as Arden Lowe) has fallen madly in love with Eisley...The above set-up really doesn't make much sense.
However, the situations do become clear, by the end of the story.
It's not a bad story, but what this TV movie does is show us the highlights in long family mystery.
Unfortunately, events just happen.
There is little attempt to build a mystery or piece them together.
We are shown, not guided or told.
The emphasis is clearly on sex fantasies.
Apparently, this is the main thrust (sorry) of the assignment given director Mike Rohl and his crew.
The performances are all highly sexualized.
You don't see much sex, by the way, since this movie is geared toward foreplay and fantasy.
The problem is...
the story really wasn't about sex.
The violent incident triggering the drama, and its repercussions, are lost in the mix.
The best you can say that is everyone looks sexy and the photography, by James Liston, is outstanding.**** My Sweet Audrina (2016-01-09) Mike Rohl ~ India Eisley, William Moseley, James Tupper, Tess Atkins.
What the hell?.
The book is almost a a creepy nightmare and this movie is a pink soap opera.
There's a lot of elements that are missing here, first of all Audrina hair color , eyes color, her cousins hair color, Audrina has a little sister in this movie there's no sister.
And there's lots of facts that are missing as well..
This movie is a total disgrace to the book.
The book draws you in, but this piece of trash movie just makes you want to run away from the television..
spooky mystery.
Audrina Adare (Farryn VanHumbeck) lived in isolation with with her father Damian (James Tupper), mother Lucietta, aunt Ellsbeth and cousin Vera (Kacey Rohl) in a mansion.
She lived in the shadow of her dead sister namesake.
She is confused with time and lost memories.
Vera constantly taunts her.
Her father pushes a connection with the original Audrina.
Arden Lowe is a local boy in love with Audrina.
Lucietta dies in childbirth and baby Sylvia is autistic.
Years later, Audrina (India Eisley) takes piano lessons from Lamar Rensdale while Vera (Tess Atkins) flirts.This starts off like a moody horror movie.
In the end, it's only a spooky mystery.
Kacey Rohl should have stayed as Vera.
The change in Audrina actresses is acceptable and Arden is inevitable.
Rohl could easily play all the different ages.
India Eisley has the innocent fragility and beauty for the part.
Her speaking voice does mumble her lines sometimes which isn't the greatest for a lead.
The middle is a lot of slow rambling sexual melodrama.
It's somewhat aimless.
It needs a direction and the simplest is Audrina researching her namesake predecessor.
By the end, the reveal doesn't satisfy as much as releases the movie from its expectations..
Enjoyable and well filmed despite ludicrous story.
Atmospheric and nicely filmed, this adaptation of VC Andrews non Flowers series novel is worth a watch for fans of her books.
W young girl is home schooled and kept confined in her family's mansion - but what secret is the family hiding about her deceased sister?
The faults of a typical VC Andrews story are there - one dimensionally evil people, rather abrupt shifts in plot direction, but it's still good fun.
The implausibility of the plot doesn't matter - after all it is a fantasy of sorts.The cast is watchable.
As Audrina India Eisley's acting has improved a lot from Secret Life days and she makes quite a lot of this far fetched tale believable.
Her love interest is played by the Royals' William Mosely looks a bit old for her and his British accent comes across.
James Tupper of Revenge is okay enough as the father.The love scene is kind of laughable as she transforms suddenly from frigid to the opposite.For fans.
another botched job from lifetime.
I really wanted to give this movie more than five stars, but it appears that Lifetime isn't interested in doing V.C. Andrews books right to earn a higher rating.Lifetime needs to learn to ask fans what is important about these books before making them.
If they can't even get the character's hair color right, then why are they bothering at all?
This is a serious question.
Color symbolism was important to V.C. Andrews books, which they would know if they had read the books and taken them seriously enough to write a script to reflect it.There's so much wrong with this movie, I can't even.
But I'll try.1.
Damien was ruthless, cruel, and a charming psychopath.
The movie implies he is a creepy child molester which is stupid.
They would know this if they read the book.2.
Arden was much more of a selfish, demanding dick in the book.
He had his good qualities but deep down inside he was only concerned about himself and his own guilt ridden psychological complex.
The movie makes him look like god's gift to Audrina, which he wasn't.3.
Billie Lowe is missing.4.
Sylvia is missing.5.
Mercy Mary teatimes were missing.6.
Audrina's hair color was missing.
It was a point of her identity in the book and tied her to her mother.7.
Vera's hair color and eye color was missing.
Vera's eye color was supposed to betray her true father - Damian.8.
Ellsbeth was portrayed as a milquetoast pushover.
Yes, Ellsbeth stayed at Whitefern because she was still in love with Damian.
However, in the book her personality was much more disciplined and stuffy.
She was nowhere near as nice in the movie.9.
The ending was mixed up and made no sense.
The chronological order of events were switched around.10.
The rapists in the book were Audrina's classmates, not 18 year old teenage boys.There are excellent visuals and atmospheric qualities of this movie that were overshadowed by the hack job the script writer gave to V.C. Andrews book..
"My Sweet Audrina" tells the Story of a Girl with PTSD.
Audrina Adare (India Eisley) lives a secluded life in her family's mansion of Whitefern.
Audrina is not allowed out of her house to attend school or socialize with other children her age.
She has no idea of how much time has passed in her life because her father Damian Jonathan Adare (James Tupper) doesn't allow her to have a calendar and a watch.
The clocks in the family home are all set at different hours and this contributes to poor Audrina's confusion!
Damian and his wife Lucietta aka Lucky (Kirsten Robek) had a daughter before Audrina who was also named Audrina.
When this perfect, beautiful Audrina was 9 years old, she was assaulted and killed by a group of boys in the woods near the family home.
Every Sunday the family that also includes Lucky's sister, Ellsbeth (Jennifer Copping) and her vile daughter, Vera (Kacey Rohl) visit the first Audrina's grave.
Damian is determined to make the second Audrina as perfect and as beautiful as the first Audrina.
He makes Audrina sit in her sister's rocking chair so she can absorb the essence of her perfect sister.
This is traumatic for poor Audrina.
She sees her sister's rape and murder while she rocks and she screams in fright.
There is no relief for Audrina in this house.
Vera always bullies her and calls her dumb because Audrina has no concept of time.
Lucky gets pregnant but loses her life and the child so Audrina has no younger sibling who will love her.
The only things that give Audrina any kind of happiness are the crush she has on the ground keeper's son Arden Lowe (Seth Isaac Johnson) and the piano lessons from the handsome pianist Lamar (Matthew Kevin Anderson).
The horrid Vera spoils this for Audrina when she seduces Lamar.
Audrina and Arden get married with her father's reluctant blessing.
However, the marriage is doomed because Audrina is still traumatized by what happened to the first Audrina and she won't let Arden touch her.
Arden confronts Damian who reveals a big spoiler for Audrina.
The first Audrina was invented by the family and the second Audrina is the one and only Audrina there is!
Damian says Audrina came home after the rape in the woods and Lucky scrubbed the crime off of her body.
Audrina went through electro-shock therapy to wipe the memory away but Damian didn't want her to suffer through that.
He invented the fictional Audrina and told Audrina the rape happened to the non-existent Audrina.
Later on, another big reveal comes up when Vera pushes Audrina down the stairs and send her into a coma.
Audrina sees in the past when she is 9 and Vera is 11.
Vera helps her dress up in her birthday dress and tells Audrina there is a big surprise for her after school.
The "surprise" is the rape in the woods by the boys.
Arden was there, but he tried to help Audrina and not hurt her.
Vera had the boys rape Audrina because she was jealous of Damian's affection for Audrina and his dislike for her (Vera).
Vera was also Damian's child with Ellsbeth.
When Vera is confronted in the present by Audrina, she falls down the stairs and dies.
In the end, Audrina knows she has a life with Arden to look forward to and is no longer haunted by the perfect sister who never existed.
This movie was quite gripping in its portrayal of a dysfunctional family and the aftermath of PTSD due to a rape.
India Eisley was wonderful as the confused Audrina with special mention due to Kacey Rohl, Tess Atkins, and Hannah Cheramy as the villainous Vera.
Imogen Tear and Farryn VanHumbeck were also great as the younger Audrinas as well!
This story is recommended for any VC Andrews fan!.
Possible Spoilers below**.
I have to say that I have loved all the other V.C Andrews books to movies, the Dollanger Series was lovely.
When it came to this movie, the lead is beautiful but her acting skills are quiet lacking, she mumbles lines, and I really can't say she had any real chemistry with her male lead.
I adored Vera more, which is saying a lot when I read the books, I couldn't stand her.One of my biggest disappointments is Audrina's hair color, in the novel it was described as blond, with many other shades in it.
In fact it is a key point in the "First" Audrina's story.
Where she say's all girls of her hair color is witches and attempts to "call down a curse" on the boys.
So this is a minor cosmetic thing, but its a big one to me.
Also Audrina's eyes were suppose to be purple, V.C Andrews wrote her to be Gothic, and I feel that this movie fails to deliver it.By the end of it your just wanting for her to find the truth out so it will end.
The story builds but goes no where..
Brooding piece where Audrina stays locked up in her house as her over-cautious father takes every step to guard her, as he didn't with her older sister and that he feels led to her death.Our father is quite a Casanova.
Besides his wife and Audrina, he has fathered a daughter, Vera, from his relationship with his sister-in-law, wife's sister.Tess Atkins is terrific as Vera.
At every turn she harasses Audrina to the highest degree.Audrina's mother dies in childbirth and the aunt soon follows.
Audrina finds true love and weds.
Vera is banished by the father only to come back and promise to be different.
She has no intention of doing that and instead tries to pry Audrina's husband, Alden, away.There is a lot of soap opera here with dead bodies turning up by the staircase.