"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."
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."