Seeds of Yesterday

Plot synopsis:
Thirteen years after If There Be Thorns, Cathy and Chris arrive at Foxworth Hall, which has been re-built by Bart, for his 25th birthday party. Bart has remained obsessed with Malcolm and has an estranged relationship with his mother and uncle/step-father due to their incestuous relationship. He's even changed his last name to Foxworth in order to emphasise his distance from them. His anger and hatred is particularly aimed towards Chris, though still showing a deep love for his mother. Jory and his wife, Melodie, arrive to announce she is pregnant with twins. Everyone, but Bart, is excited about the news and Bart is jealous of his brother because he secretly lusts after Melodie.
The next day, Cindy arrives and Bart welcomes her with contempt, not even wanting to acknowledge her as his sister due to her merely being adopted. At the birthday party, Jory and Cindy perform a ballet for the guests, but Jory has an accident that leaves him paralyzed from the waist down and ends his dance career. Melodie is distraught since she is unable to live with a husband who can't dance, nor make love to her again. Cindy suspects that Bart was responsible for the incident since he had updated his insurance policy the day before the accident. When confronted with this suspicion, Bart denies this to Cathy and Chris, but they don't fully believe him.
As months pass with Jory hospitalized and Melodie becoming more depressed, Bart takes advantage of her vulnerable state and seduces her. When Jory comes home, Corrine's will is read and Bart is enraged to learn that he will inherit the Foxworth estate only on his 35th birthday, leaving Chris as the guardian of his money until then. Cathy discovers Bart and Melodie's affair when walking in on them having sex. Bart tells Cathy that Melodie loves him and points out that Malcolm was obsessed with his own mother until she abandoned him and how much he hates seeing his own mother with Chris. Cathy then confronts Melodie and threatens to ruin her life if she doesn't start supporting her husband Jory. Jory however soon attempts suicide by drowning in the pool, but is saved by Chris. Following this, Melodie promises Jory that she will be more attentive to him, but she soon tries to continue her affair with Bart, who having had her, rejects her. Cindy brings home a new boyfriend, Lance, to meet the family during dinner. However, Bart beats him after catching the two having sex. Despite his hatred towards her, Bart nevertheless starts to lust for Cindy.
On Christmas Day, Bart deliberately confesses his affair with Melodie to Jory, and the shock causes her to go into premature labour. She gives birth to a boy and girl named Darren and Deirdre. However, she shows no interest in them as well as Jory and abruptly abandons them. Bart follows Cindy meeting with another boyfriend at a bar and confronts her on her way home through the woods and, in the heat of the moment, has sex with her. Cindy is interested in having a relationship with Bart and admits that she has genuine feelings for him, even revealing she knows about Cathy and Chris' secret, but he rejects her having sated his lust. Devastated, Cindy returns to school in New York.
Chris decides to look for a new house for Cathy, Jory, the twins, and himself to give Bart his own space. They hire a nanny, Toni, to take care of the twins. Bart starts pursuing her, which troubles Cathy since she was hoping Toni would end up with Jory instead. Bart soon accuses Toni of being with him merely for his money and breaks up with her. He then forces the family to attend a baptism at the Foxworth chapel for the twins and almost drowns Deirdre in the font, causing Cathy and Chris to decide to leave Foxworth Hall with Jory, Toni, and the twins to get away from sociopathic Bart. Bart has a mental breakdown and accuses Cathy of abandoning him for Chris, and blames her for ruining the family. He is about to kill her with a dagger before he is stopped by Jory. Finally seeing that it is hopeless to help him, Cathy decides to leave Bart for good. As he returns home after finding them a new house, Chris pulls over to help a stranded motorist and is struck by a passing truck, which kills him instantly.
Several hours pass before the police arrive to inform the family of Chris' accident and death. This causes Bart to realize his wrongdoings and how he has pushed people away. He realizes his love for Cindy and confesses to her when she comes home for Chris' funeral. Bart remorsefully gives a moving eulogy at Chris' funeral and is thankful to Chris for raising him when he didn't need to. In the end, Cathy reveals that her children led successful lives away from Foxworth Hall. Jory thrives in his recovery, has married Toni, and they are raising the twins and expecting a child together. Bart becomes a televangelist and marries Cindy. However, Cathy chooses to remain at Foxworth Hall as she continues to mourn the loss of her beloved Chris. One day, she goes up to the attic, sits by a window and, as she envisions yellow paper flowers, there is an implication that she had died of a broken heart.

Tags: insanity

Review:
'Seeds' concludes a whirlwind of a series in dramatic fashion.
The last installment in the Dollanganger series, which is hopefully never going to continue.
We began with Flowers in the Attic, a isolated story that was fairly interesting, and then Petals on the Wind, which was underwhelming at best, and then If There Be Thorns which was a suspenseful thriller that I thought was the best so far.
The only thing I know for certain is that James Maslow is in this one, and I enjoy him as an actor and he's a sexy beast, I mean, delightful human being.
this is......Seeds of Yesterday.
Seeds of Yesterday starts off thirteen years after If There Be Thorns, with Bart inviting the family to the newly built reproduction of Foxworth Hall for his twenty-fifth birthday bash, and all of them bringing news and their own problems that start to weigh heavily on Bart's mind.This is a very worthy sequel to If There Be Thorns.
The character of Bart is probably the most interesting character, in not just this film or the previous one, but in the entire series.
James Maslow gives an amazing performance in this film.
I wouldn't expect it from the guy who began on a show like Big Time Rush, but he honestly brings a sense of darkness to the character that just works so well.
Definitely the best actor in the film, just as Mason Cook was last time.The cinematography and music are all wonderful.
They all look very atmospheric and make any room seem either warm or cold, depending on what the situation is.All of the other actors do well, even some of the newer ones who have been recast again (I think this is the only time Chris and Cathy haven't been recast in a film!).
Some of the highlights, in my eyes, include Sammi Hanratty as a grown-up Cindy Sheffield, Anthony Konechy and Leah Gibson as Jory and Melodie Marquet, and they all do a great job.
All of them are forced to do some pretty despicable things in the film, or experience those things, so having actors who can properly convey that, is very important.The plot is pretty good.
Towards the end, it does go a bit crazy and Bart seems to be going off the deep end, but what I previously thought might have been possession could have also been delusion.
The way this film ends, it's kind of reminiscent of how the first one begins.
It begins, and ends, in the attic of a Foxworth Hall.
I don't know if that was in the book, but that is a very strange way to end the film.Perhaps my only issue is that I still can't believe that there's another incestuous relationship in this film, and the fact that for how much Bart preaches about sex being a sin, he really has a lot of it in the film.
I counted like four or five times he had a sex scene in the film.
The incestuous relationship kind of comes out of nowhere.
I won't spoil it, in case you have an interest in watching the film, but still.Overall, Seeds of Yesterday is on the same level as If There Be Thorns, better than the first two and a very intriguing story.
I personally enjoyed the acting, especially from James Maslow, the cinematography, music, and script.
The only things I disliked were some of the plot elements and the ending, but it's still a great conclusion to this roller-coaster ride of a series.8/10.
Grade: B+ (Film Grade) 7/10.
The fourth (and, presumably, final) "Lifetime" TV-movie in the "Flowers in the Attic" (2014) series continues to focus on the children who took the spotlight in "If There Be Thorns" (2015).
Blonde mom Rachael Carpani and doctor dad Jason Lewis and (as Cathy and Christopher "Chris" Dollanganger) return as the incestuous parents; they provide good-looking continuity and have more involvement in the storyline.
However, they take a back seat to the story's newest entry in the crowded "shirtless hunk" character sweepstakes, handsome James Maslow (as Bartholomew "Bart" Foxworth).
Here, he has restored the original Foxworth mansion, which burned to the ground in "Petals on the Wind" (2014).
No slouch in the shirtless department, Anthony Konechny (as Jory Marquet) assumes the role as Mr. Maslow's brother...The family gathers at the mansion to sort out inheritances and have uncontrolled sex with each other..."Seeds of Yesterday" ups the arousing female quotient, which had dipped in the previous movie; however, there are no nipples.
The new nymphomaniac in the mansion is sexually-charged Sammi Hanratty (as Cynthia "Cindy" Sheffield).
The little blonde girl adopted in the previous story reveals her real worth, herein.
Of course, she was meant to grow up and have sex with anyone willing, which she states is her insatiable "appetite." Also needing, as she says, "a man inside me," is ballet dancer Leah Gibson (as Melodie).
Lead actor Maslow attracts every woman in the cast, even getting his mom on her knees for a suggestive scene.
In between the sex, the story is lost and confused.
Andrews' characters seem only used to show various family members live simply to copulate with each other.**** Seeds of Yesterday (4/12/15) Shawn Ku ~ James Maslow, Anthony Konechny, Sammi Hanratty, Rachael Carpani.
Fourth in the Dollanganger series.
It is expected that religious Bart is inheriting the family fortune on his 25th birthday after years of psychiatric treatment and poisoned by Malcolm's journal.
His parents Cathy and Christopher Sheffield have been managing the money for him.
He has changed his name from Sheffield to Foxworth.
His brother Jory is a star ballet dancer and his wife Melodie announces her pregnancy.
Adopted sister Cindy overhears Bart talking about insurance on Jory over the phone.
Jory performs for Bart's 25th birthday and is paralyzed by a suspicious accident.
Bart and Melodie start having an affair.
I like that Bart is fully Darth Vader.
He makes this better than 'If There Be Thorns'.
As Lifetime movies go, this series is better than most.
Interesting movie but too much deviation from the original story.
I am a long time fan of this book series and of V.C. Andrews.
I have read and re-read the books dozens of times so needless to say, I know the Dollenganger/Foxworth story quite well.
I watched this movie on Lifetime last night and while I enjoyed it for the most part, I did not enjoy the massive deviation from the original book story.
For starters, anyone who has read these books knows that Foxworth Hall is the king of homes, the biggest and most elaborate structure in all of Virginia.
In the beginning of the film, when Chris and Cathy pull up to Foxworth Hall, Cathy remarks how Bart had built an exact replica as the original.
The home they use for the film seriously lacks the majesty that is Foxworth Hall.
In fact, it looks no different than your average home in an upscale neighborhood, hardly befitting someone like Malcolm Foxworth.
The Foxworth Hall from the books was imposing and frightening, standing alone on a high hill like a king over his subjects.
One big problem I had with this movie was the complete omission of Joel Foxworth, Corrine's long-though dead brother.
As those of you who have read the books know, Joel was a main character in Seeds of Yesterday and was also a significantly bad influence over Bart.
I suppose if the filmmakers did not intend to make "Garden of Shadows" into a movie, I can understand the omission of Joel but it took a lot away from the story.
The characters of Chris and Cathy lacked any real passion or intensity.
In the books, Cathy was stronger, more fiery and more of a fighter.
The Cathy in this movie was a passive pushover.
Cathy and Chris' relationship is always defined as intense and very sexual.
That did not come across in this movie at all.
Bart and his adopted sister Cindy having sex and then later getting married?
Definitely not from the book.
Jory Marquet is descended from the Russian Ballet and was always described in the books as having jet black hair and blue eyes, very intense.
The Jory from the movie did not fit the book character at all.
Jory was much more fiery and passionate, in the movie, he was turned into a pathetic character who didn't stand up for himself at all.
All in all, this was a good movie but I believe the books are always better than the films.
I would recommend seeing the movie but I would also recommend reading the books first so that you have a more accurate understanding of the characters.
The "Flowers in the Attic" series is best understood if you read from beginning to end.
I won't deny that this modern version of V.C. Andrews' 4th book in the Dollanganger series has a lot of cinematic style, highlighting the dark and ugly secrets of the rich and strange in a haunting and often surreal way.
But Seeds of Yesterday just came across as lame and overdramatic.
The acting was horrible for the most part, and the character of Cindy especially really got on my nerves.
She's this wealthy, worldly dancer, almost an adult, so it makes sense for her to just blurt out "d!ckhead" at her brother like a five-year-old?
The perverse sex scenes between siblings Cathy and Christopher were just shudder-inducing, disgusting and frankly silly.
The film takes place in an earlier point in time, yet every character talks just like a 21st century hipster.
All of them act like children.
The constant lines such as Bart's "your wife can't stay off my junk" and the pretentious speech style of the immature and dysfunctional family seemed out of place and a little stupid.I honestly think that this film series has been stretched out much longer than it needed to be, and that it's just a cash cow for a company already known for making identical films about shallow cookie-cutter families.
I never would've thought that Lifetime would be the company to revive this twisted series, and instead of focusing on giving the story some depth, they just kept on piling up the shock value of the incest, sexual phrases and violent theatrics.
I just kept laughing the whole way through, because it's impossible to take Seeds of Yesterday seriously..
I haven't reviewed the other three movies and almost didn't review this one, simply because there is no way to correctly deduce the expected outcome of a V.C. Andrews adaption.
This is for two reasons: one being that the books are practically a genre unto themselves; and two because there have been no serious efforts made to properly adapt them into visual media that can fully encompass the batcrap crazy rabbit hole that is the writing of V.C. Andrews.I say this with full respect to V.C. Andrews - she is by far, the most unlikely but gifted writer of her generation.
Her books were meant to be notional, dramatic, and horrifying.
V.C. Andrews books were marketed as horror books before they became franchised as family dramas.
People say V.C. Andrews books are trash - I say they've sold millions copies so judge away, as Flowers in the Attic still enthralls every generation after it's initial publication.Back to the review.
Being that the Dollanganger Saga are all produced by Lifetime, it was a safe guess that they would get the evening news treatment.
There is simply no way to accurately adapt one of V.C. Andrews' books without making it into a week-long miniseries.
V.C. was a writer extremely and emotionally invested in her books to the point of self-imposed isolation and grieving after one of the characters died.
For that, it's almost an insult that Lifetime would slap together a script so they could take advantage a series of books so notorious that Hollywood should have theoretically bought the filming rights decades ago.But because they didn't, fans of the books will have to take what they can get.
In this case, a separate movie for each book; the plot condensed and organized so that the viewer can follow along without having to think too much; with some titillating scenes sprinkled with 50 Shades of Grey mimicry.That about sums up Seeds of Yesterday, as well as all the other movies.
Yeah, I know, no book adaption will ever be the same as the book itself, but Seeds of Yesterday really deviated from the book (as if deviance even exists in the world of V.C. Andrews).
The movie is well made, and the acting is competent for the most part.
It's no secret that Jason Maslow stole the show, and has great chemistry with Sammi Hanratty.
However, in the book Cindy and Bart hate each other, and Cindy only provoked Bart because she hated him.
Well, he did try to kill her as a child so is it really logical that Cindy would grow up and want to have sex with Bart?
In the book, I was never given a reason to believe that there was sexual tension between Cindy and Bart.
Bart was too obsessed with getting the upper hand on Jory and Cindy displayed behavior that I can only describe as Borderline Personality Disorder.
I also say that with respect, as your mother dying at an extremely young age and having a psychotic older brother that rejects you your whole life and even tries to kill you WILL, without a doubt, give you issues.
For those who have never read the books, you are probably wondering why incest didn't occur between Bart and Cindy in the books as the movie makes it look like a great idea considering Bart is both insane and his mother is married to her brother.
I suspect that at the point of Seeds of Yesterday, V.C. Andrews got tired of writing about forbidden love vis-a-vis brother and sister; decided it played out enough with Cathy and Chris and so threw in the towel and called it a day.
There's two entire books devoted to forbidden incest, did we really need another installment?
Personally, I don't think so.Then there's the absence of Joel Foxworth, who was supposed come back from the grave after being found and nursed back to health by monks in the Italian Alps where he would then live for the next fifty or so years (give or take a decade).
Seeds of Yesterday, movie version, is bereft of the batty old man shuffling about Foxworth Hall making snide, undercutting remarks and sabotaging Bart's happiness which almost makes one want to feel sorry for him.
Joel Foxworth humanizes Bart in such a way that the movie lacks, and so it's a loss to the movie series.In conclusion, I am giving this movie a 7 out of 10; mostly because of the shameless butchering of the plot and what feels like a thinly transparent attempt to appeal to 50 Shades of Grey fans..
Seeds Continue To Grow.
The last movie based on the V.C. Andrews Dollanganger series ranks, along with the previous installment, "If There Be Thorns" (2015) as the best of the bunch, and in the case of "Seeds Of Yesterday" that is in large part due to James Maslow's performance as Bart.
In addition to being immensely good-looking, he has a commanding and magnetic presence and he shows the character's inner torment well, especially considering the running time.
Rachel Carpani and Jason Lewis return as Cathy and Chris, and while I feel the chemistry and emotional pull of the characters is lacking, it does make this last sequel feel more consistent.
Jory (Anthony Konechy) is portrayed quite well, although is character takes a backseat to Bart; the young females in the cast, particularly Sammi Hanratty as the adopted daughter and sister Cindy do well with what they were given, but once again, the lack of character development was an issue.
Fans of the novel will be disappointed and annoyed that the presumed dead uncle of Cathy and Chris, Joel Foxworth, who was a major character in the novel, was completely omitted and that the relationship between Bart and Cindy was turned sexual and romantic, which did not happen in the book.
It is likely that both time constraints and loosely adapting the material was at fault.
Another problem as I stated previously is that Cathy and Chris had larger roles in the novel as well and what is missing is the emotional investment in the characters and the direction their lives ultimately take.
The conclusion wraps things up rather hastily and as a result, the tragedy of the story, as well as hope for a new beginning for the descendants isn't nearly as moving as it could have been.
Watch this for James Maslow, and the slightly better budget and music, and put aside any expectations you might have if you have read the novels, and you might enjoy this film and the other movies in this series if you take them for what they are - glossy soap operas..
Good end to the Dollanganger series.
I thought even without Corinne's religious brother, Joel making a sudden appearance like he did in the book, the ending of the Dollanganger series was satisfactory.
James Maslow made an excellent Bart Foxworth (Dollanganger was a funny name Cathy, Chris, Carrie and Cory's father found in the genealogy).
Foxworth was the real last name of this family.
James was creepy, attractive, and rather scary as the ultra-religious Bart who thinks his family is mired in sin and will all suffer from hell's torment.
The other characters were great and I thought the newborn twins who were Deirdre and Darren Marquet (older brother Jory's children) were adorable!
Sammy Hanratty as slutty younger adopted Cindy was great and she and James Maslow had a love/hate sexual relationship.
The last scene with Cathy going up to the attic of the mansion and yellow flowers appearing was a fitting closure to this series!