WEB OF DREAMS/ VC ANDREWS WEB OF DREAMS
US, 2019, 88 minutes, Colour.
Jennifer Laporte, Max Lloyd- Jones, Cindy Busby, David Lewis, Tim Donadt, Liam Hughes, Lizzie Boys, Keenan Tracy, Iris Quinn.
Directed by Mike Rohl.
The fifth novel in the Heaven series VC Andrews, although this was written by Andrew Neiderman who continued VC Andrews’ novels, retaining her name. It is the fifth in the television series.
Readers of the books were very negative about the film versions, especially critical of the casting choices, their lack of resemblance to the characters in the books, a great deal of attention given to hairstyles and shades of hair… There was also the difficulty of covering all the aspects of the novel in 90 minutes of screen time. Aspects were omitted, plotlines changed.
By the time of this film, the narrative had covered three generations, the story of Leigh, daughter of Jillian, stepdaughter of Tony Tatterton, raped by him and her having to leave the house, going to live in the backwoods of West Virginia; the story of her daughter Heaven, growing up in the backwoods, discovering the background of her family, going back to, her encounter with Tony Tatterton’s brother, Troy; the story of Heaven, her relationship with fellow-student Logan, the clashes with her putative father, with her stepsister, Fanny, love and betrayals. There was also the story of Annie, daughter of Heaven and Logan, the death of her parents in a car accident, her discovering the truth about herself and her origins.
The question was: where to go? And the decision was made, a prequel. The film starts with Annie and her husband Luke seeing the portrait of her grandmother, and the faithful retainer of many years giving her her grandmother’s diary.
Some have felt that this prequel is unnecessary – or that it would have been better as the first film in the series. On the other hand, those who have followed the four previous films will find it often intriguing to see a dramatisation of characters and events with which they are familiar but discovering different aspects.
The young actors who portray the younger Tony and Jillian,, a quite effective in their roles, Tony being a bit more human, but being more disreputable, than he was later in the stolid performance by Jason Priestley. Cindy Busby, on the other hand, is quite effective in embodying Jillian, completely self-centred and absorbed, clashing with her mother, dominating her daughter, in the Kelly Rutherford vein.
This time the focus is on Leigh, Jillian’s daughter (and, as happens frequently in this series, finding that her putative father is not her real father). However, she is devoted to her father, upset at her mother’s selfish behaviour, yet admiring her and her talent for painting, turning 18. She is introduced to Tony, he in a relationship with Jillian, but a roving eye, rescuing Leigh and his little brother, Troy, from a storm in the maze in the garden, getting Leigh to have a bath, then, after his wedding to Jillian, raping her.
Her mother is showing signs of incipient mental problems. She does not believe her daughter. Tony goes on a long trip. Leigh leaves, goes to her grandmother but finds she has died. At the bus station, she encounters a genial young man, Luke, who helps her, takes her to his family, accepts the fact that she is pregnant, the family welcoming her, wedding, but the sudden giving birth out on the plot of land where he intends to build a house for them, her dying in childbirth.
And, there is the background for all the melodramatic events that will follow, the tormented characters, the strange sexual relationships and paternities, family conflicts…
