V.C. Andrews' Ruby

I haven't read the books but the movie is kinda awful. The script is really bad, lots of very poor acting, characters appear shallow & unlikable and the storyline is all over the place. Took me a while to understand that the movie is set in the 60s due to some poor fashion choices. The whole incest thingy seems like a questionable plot choice. An extra bonus cringe is the part in the beginning where they took static images of the house and tried to make a 3D camera spin effect using perspective distortion. Besides that, I just can't figure out what audience this is for. It doesn't just look dated, but also feels like a very cliche 90s melodrama - does anyone watch those anymore?

The series it's based on was my favorite VC Andrews series, so I expected more from this. There was very little character development in the film, which may be what led to the lackluster performances. It seemed like someone just compiled a bullet list of major plot points and presented each event with just a few lines of flat dialogue, one after another. The setting could have been better utilized, too, with the bayou and New Orleans providing more mood/atmosphere and giving it the Southern Gothic feel that was present in the books.

I saw ads for the V. C. Andrews movies on Lifetime so I thought I'd watch out of sheer boredom and running out of things to watch honestly. I don't normally watch Lifetime movies but I've always loved V. C. Andrews. This was campy and I totally get into campy. I surprisingly got wrapped up into this one and I'm now watching Pearls in the Mist.

I did not expect much so I guess I wasn't disappointed. The casting was awful and so was the acting, The plot was a bit much even though it's based on a novel. The actors look too old then too young as the series progresses.

I've seen all the series that Lifetime has done on the "VC Andrews" books. The movies, NONE of them really capture the books. Really don't know why Lifetime bothered if they weren't going to develop them into the drama-filled, angsty, gothic, mysterious family sagas that they are. Heaven is my favorite, along w/Ruby, and the Casteel movies were a disaster.

This movie is fine if you ignore the book. They have a good cast and I think Ruby as well as Giselle are decent actresses. I like that they actually used real twins bc they have true chemistry as sisters. I read that they're identical, but in the same way that if you look at Mary Kate and Ashley long enough, you can figure out who is who. There are a lot of familiar faces in this. Nothing in this movie says Louisiana and New Orleans except for the fact that they keep saying both. No accents, no music, nothing. That's disappointing because it would have added some authenticity. All of the movies go from event to event, so the movies seem like a bunch of scenes filmed and pieced together. I do think the movie told a story, but it didn't really flesh out much.

There's not much to say because there's no point in comparing it to the books since we know how Lifetime rolls. But it's a watchable 90 minutes. Watching Pearl in the Mist next.