My Sweet Audrina (2016 TV Movie) User Reviews (18)

another botched job from lifetime

[dutchchocolatecake · 5/10 · 12 April 2016]

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.

A Pretty Mess

[Falconeer · 5/10 · 26 August 2017]

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.

Enjoyable and well filmed despite ludicrous story

[phd_travel · 7/10 · 17 January 2016]

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

There's Something about Audrina

[wes-connors · 4/10 · 16 January 2016]

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

Pretty good, if abbreviated adaptation

[HorrorFilmHellion · 7/10 · 26 July 2022]

Too much novel to cram into 90 minutes, but this captured the heart of the story. Obviously it was both cleaner and whittled way down to turn into a screenplay, but this is expected. Lifetime holds the crown on VCA adaptations, for better or worse. And these are some of the best productions Lifetime puts out there. Great efforts considering the complexity and mature subject matter that makes up VCA source material. I enjoyed it.

Possible Spoilers below**

[witchelocke · 5/10 · 7 February 2017]

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.

**1/2

[edwagreen · 6/10 · 23 January 2016]

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.

Whittfern Blues

[lavatch · 5/10 · 3 April 2020]

"My Sweet Audrina" was a well-photographed and performed Gothic melodrama. At the heart of this brooding, romantic saga is the tragic story of little Audrina and her older sister who must bear the brunt of her sister's past.

The slow pace of the film and the long build-up to the revelation of what happened to the "first" Audrina is the basis for the dramatic tension. The performances were top-notch and the forest environment was effectively captured in the filming. The scenic backdrops were spectacular, and some effort and expense went into the period style costumes in the almost mythical setting of Whittfern.

The most interesting relationship was the complicated love story of the adult Audrina and the devoted Alden. But their lives were suffocated by Audrina's guilt-ridden father and the devious "cousin" Vera. This is indeed a tightly-knit family in many unhealthy ways.

In the end, the film came across as a poor-man's Charlotte Bronte-type story and not a far cry from "Wuthering Heights." Because it was drenched in atmosphere and thin on uplifting values, the film might be best called "Whittfern Blues."

What the hell?

[Gochi · 1/10 · 28 April 2017]

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.

"My Sweet Audrina" tells the Story of a Girl with PTSD

[dhainline1 · 8/10 · 15 February 2016]

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!

spooky mystery

[SnoopyStyle · 5/10 · 18 August 2016]

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.

Just NO!!!

[tisa-01078 · 1/10 · 13 January 2019]

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.

Okay as a movie, but disappointing as an adaptation

[Noirdame79 · 5/10 · 8 October 2021]

On its own, this is not a bad film. The production values are quite good (especially with the interior scenes), and it has a reasonably gothic atmosphere, the music is decent, as is most of the acting. If you haven't read the book, you may like the film.

As an adaptation of the novel, this is an extremely watered-down presentation. Granted, the book is quite massive, covers a lot of years and no doubt some of it would have been difficult to translate to the screen. However, several important characters are either missing or have very little screen time, so their importance to the plot and to the main characters doesn't register. Some of the characters were whitewashed to make them more likable.

As another reviewer noted, 90 minutes just isn't enough time to tell these stories. Lifetime would have done better if they had produced them as miniseries. The complex nature of these novels by V. C. Andrews doesn't always translate well within a limited budget.

India Eisley was a good choice to play the older Audrina, but I don't know why Lifetime seems to have a problem with giving the actresses wigs when hair color is such a crucial part of the characters. James Tupper did well as Audrina's father Damian although he's not nearly as detestable as he was in the book, and Tess Atkins did what she could as Vera in the limited amount of screen time she had.

Nothing remarkable, but enjoyable enough if you can let go of any expectations as to following the source material.

Terrible.

[tiffybabesx · 1/10 · 22 May 2020]

My sweet audrina is one of the best books I've ever read. This movie however is awful. The acting is terrible and I can't seem to figure out why Arden and audrina seem to have Scottish accents??? If you enjoyed the book save yourself and do not watch this garbage excuse for a movie.

Forced and Tepid Adaptation

[johnbaxter-83212 · 5/10 · 18 August 2021]

Having not read the novel it originated from, I was able to go into My Sweet Audrina totally cold with no knowledge of the story except that it was billed as a creepy, gothic family drama much like V. C. Andrews' more popular Flowers in the Attic which I enjoyed.

Perhaps it was the Lifetime trope of speeding up the events of the story to squeeze in as much into 90 minutes as possible that caused this movie to fall flat to me or maybe it was the awkward acting by just about everyone in the film, but this one was a dud to me. As I was watching, I could tell the concept and story itself were interesting and strong, but the adaptation felt off. The filmmakers aren't allowed to let moments flow naturally and everyone's at the same emotional pitch throughout most of the movie. Things happen so fast and there's not enough time for the actors, characters, or audience to deal with some of the pretty insane things that happen throughout the movie.

Enchanting Movie

[johnginesi-72278 · 8/10 · 6 May 2020]

V.C. Andrews is a great writer, her movies are beautifully reproduced in these telemovies MySweet Audrina is no exception, and the addition of the music box music makes the story complete, Other notables are Heaven and of course Flowers In The Attic. It is such a refreshing change to all these Marvel vs DC movies. Class is the only way to describe these Stories.

far from good

[myriamlenys · 2/10 · 19 March 2019]

It is more or less clear what the various makers of the movie intended - a sweltering, Gothic thriller - but the execution of the idea leaves a lot to be desired. To begin with, the movie is very uneven in tone. It also finds it difficult to decide what's important and what not. Quite a lot of time is spent on minor incidents, while the tragedy at the heart of the movie only gets discussed near the end, almost as a casual afterthought.

This gives the movie a completely unintended layer of surrealism. It's somewhat like listening to an emergency call where the caller chats about the weather ("It is unseasonably warm for March, but the daffodils have never looked lovelier"), family matters ("So Hannah is pregnant again - I don't know how Bob is going to support FOUR children, unless he's finally getting that promotion he's been talking about for years") and village gossip ("Now that mrs. Wilson is head librarian, she's pontificating about free speech, but she always was the first to shut people up whenever they talked about her husband having an affair") - before mentioning that the house is on fire.

Moreover, "My sweet Audrina" doesn't believe in nuance. Characters aren't just determined, they're unbending to the point of obsession - and so on. And the poor protagonist isn't just being betrayed, she's being betrayed at an Olympic level, by pretty much every warm and breathing body within a twenty-mile radius.

Combine all of this with the fact that the subject matter is very dark - we're talking various shades of child abuse - and you might want to spend your time on a better movie.

Shockingly GREAT

[LizKenny-06763 · 10/10 · 21 August 2023]

I was locked inside all weekend due to a hurricane and decided to binge all the VC Andrews series on Lifetime. It got to be pretty repetitive with similar story lines, twists, incest, poverty, rich family member dying etc. And then I got to My Sweet Audrina! I almost missed it because it's older and not a series but a stand alone but my god it was the best! It's pretty rare for me these days in my movie binging madness to find a film that keeps me off my phone, fully engaged, on the edge my seat, and wondering who/what/where/when/why! In fact I normally have the whole plot figured out but not with this. But along with an interesting and really originally story line, you have great actors! I fell in love with James Tupper in the Revenge series years ago, which is always a go to rewatch for me. As well as William Moseley in The Royals, which was canceled way too soon. India Eisley was unfamiliar to me but I could see her having a fantastic career if given the right opportunities. In my opinion this is one of the over all best films I've seen in years and it's a quick, easy watch without getting dragged out unnecessarily.