This flaccid film adaptation doesn't. It totally misses the mark.

This one attempts to tell the story of a down-and-out widow and her four children returning to her ancestral family estate after a long period of estrangement imposed upon her for having bedded her own uncle and for bringing forth the damnable aforementioned kiddos.

Sleepwalker Fletcher manages to give what can only be called an "anti performance" as the sinister grandmother, while the kids are irritatingly one-dimensional.

Tennant as the shallow mother is especially unconvincing, a masterful feat considering any halfwit TV actress nowadays could accidently hit the right note on such a simple role.

Aided and abetted by avoiding the issue of incest between the two older children - one of the few colorful and ironic subthemes of the original text! - this is great pulp fiction turned into uneventful cinematic drivel.