Peyton Place

• Oscillating between pathos and action, this is the dominant mode of popular American cinema (and culture more broadly).
• She’s right – but then there’s melodrama and Melodrama, the kind that makes us think of soap operas and damsels tied to train tracks.

All is not as it may seem

• June, who has a complex history with abuse herself, has set up the farm – which cultivates flowers – as a refuge for desperate women.
• We also see, early on, that while June appears to be a strong and compassionate woman, she’s also someone who demands things go her way.
• Based on her knowledge of floriculture, she secures a job as a park ranger apparently on the look out for flower poachers (!).
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Effectively rendered

• All of the elements of Lost Flowers are effectively rendered.
• Alyla Brown as Young Alice manages to combine vulnerability, enthusiasm and naivety in a way that perfectly captures the effects of her circumstances on her development.
• Alycia Debnam-Carey is similarly effective playing the older Alice and, as usual, is a delight to watch.

Pop fiction

• It’s a sentimental but sufficiently distracting diversion – and isn’t this what TV is all about?
• There’s nothing “deep” about it – like its source novel, it’s pop fiction – but why should there be?
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