Film / Seeds of Yesterday

In 2015, Lifetime did a Made-for-TV Movie adaptation of the book.

Starring

• Rachael Carpani as Cathy
• Jason Lewis as Chris
• James Maslow as Bart
• Sammi Hanratty as Cindy
• Anthony Konechny as Jory
• Leah Gibson as Melodie
• Nikohl Boosheri as Toni

Seeds of Yesterday, more than any other of the books, doesn't really have a central plot with a climax. Instead has a bunch of subplots that meander around. The movie does an Adaptation Distillation by removing Joel and lessening the focus on Jory, and an Adaptation Expansion by making the Bart/Cindy relationship more central and Relationship Upgrading it from Belligerent Sexual Tension to an Official Couple. The movie thus has a much more traditional plot structure than the book, leading many fans praise it as a Pragmatic Adaptation.

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Tropes associated with the movie include:

• The '90s: Bart is proud to have a DVD player and dial-up internet in his house. Bart gives Cindy a Discman for Christmas.
• Abduction Is Love: There's no question that the sex is all consensual, but the prelude to it's kinda sketchy. Bart basically stalks Cindy when she sneaks out to a local bar. He confronts her in the woods, and she baits him in their usually banter-y way. He proceeds to forcefully pick her up to take her home, while she's screaming at him to put her down. He throws her on the ground and begins kissing her, and she responds in kind. The next scene after the commercial break is of her sitting on his bed in her underwear, eager for Round Two.
• Adaptational Badass: Jory—even in a wheelchair—can physically take down his brother.
• Adaptation Dye-Job: Melodie is a brunette in the movie, while Jory is blond. It was the other way around in the book. Just like in the last movie, making Bart the only dark-haired one in the family serves to visually underline his Black Sheep status.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: The most interesting follow-on effect of the Relationship Upgrade between Bart and Cindy is how it reframes the father-son relationship between Chris and Bart. Bart is acutely aware of the Like Father, Like Son potential, and dead-set on Defying it.
• Adapted Out: Joel, of all people—who was a major antagonist in the novel, essentially what Malcolm strives to be, and who had considerable poisonous influence over Bart—is completely absent from the movie.
• Answer Cut: Cathy assures Bart that the right woman for him is out there somewhere. The next shot is of Cindy arriving at the house.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: There's a sweet scene between the brothers where Bart visits Jory in the hospital.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: Bart and Cindy
• Crazy Jealous Guy: Bart towards Cindy—his reaction upon catching her and her boyfriend together is far more that of a lover than brother. Later, he follows her when she sneaks out to a local bar and can be seen glaring at the guy she's cavorting with.
  Bart: That trust-fund maggot didn't deserve you.
  Cindy: Oh, well, now you just sound jealous.
  Bart: Don't get it twisted like the rest of our family.
• Distracted by the Sexy: Bart botches a tennis play upon noticing Cindy in her minidress. He nastily calls her out on it even though it was completely unintentional on her part.
• Eating the Eye Candy: Bart, when Cindy wears the red dress to his birthday.
• Epiphany Therapy: Like in the book, Bart realizes only after Chris dies that he loved and valued him. He forgives him, and realizes that his family really does love them and that he has to stop pushing them away before it's too late. In the movie, the Relationship Upgrade between Bart and Cindy also re-frames the relationship between Bart and Chris. When Chris dies, Bart forgives his father. His forgives his parents' incest, and then in turn forgives himself for his incest. This propels him to follow in his father's footsteps and marry his own sister. He adopts a strain of Christianity that's more focused on love than sin.
• False Start: Bart and Cindy are moments away from kissing, Bart caresses her hair—then pulls it. They instantly fall back into their old patterns of antagonism.
  Cindy: What the hell?!
• Female Gaze: The camera lingers over Bart as he wears a towel, takes off that towel, and gets dressed.
• Generation Xerox: Bart and Cindy's incestuous relationship echoes that of their parents—there's even a moment following a confrontation with Cindy when Bart angrily tells Chris, "I am nothing like you!", indicating that he's determined to resist his attraction to his sister. Only after Chris dies does Bart embrace the path Chris took: marry your sister and be happy together.
• Hollywood Pudgy: In universe. Bart taunts Melodie about how much weight she's gained during her pregnancy and Melodie herself laments it in another scene, but she looks fine.
• Interrupted Suicide: Jory drives his wheelchair into the pool to drown himself. Chris pulls him out and saves him.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Bart stalks Cindy when she sneaks out to a local bar and spies on her while she cavorts with one of the patrons, but he's right that she's too young to be going to such places and aside from jealousy, his actions might be out of genuine concern for her safety in such a situation.
• Loving Bully: It appears that a huge part of why Bart is always so antagonistic towards Cindy is because he's struggling with his improper attraction to her. Right down to him throwing her out of his room after they finally have sex, no doubt because he's ashamed of what they've done.
• Meaningful Look: Cathy is aware of the subtext when Cindy talks about how she has this weird need to provoke Bart. Cindy does not see her mom's face—they're both looking across the room at Bart—but the audience does.
  Cindy: I don't know what it is, it's like—something about him makes me want to get a rise out of him.
• Menacing Hand Shot: A closeup of Bart's fist clenching angrily as he walks in on Cindy and her boyfriend having sex. The camera stays with it as he storms toward them and attacks the guy.
• Moving-Away Ending: The movie ends with Bart and Cindy and Toni and Joey leaving Foxworth Hall to embark on their respective new lives, leaving Cathy behind.
• No Medication for Me: At one point, Bart goes off his meds. Everyone else sees this as an extension of his regular behavior, but Cathy is more willing to think it's because of that.
• Not Blood Siblings: Adoptive siblings Bart and Cindy do fall in love and eventually marry. Cindy justifies the relationship by mentioning the trope.
  Cindy: All my life you made me feel ashamed for being adopted, but now I am so happy I am. I mean, it's not like we're blood sibs like Mom and Dad. [...] It's not sin; not for us; not really.

However, the narrative's framing of this is actually a Subverted Trope. Bart ignores Cindy's words. That reasoning doesn't seem to land with him; he doesn't seem to think it makes a difference. Before Bart can move forward in his relationship with Cindy, he first has to make his peace with incest and accept the relationship between their parents (who are blood siblings). Only then can he get together with Cindy, knowing that it is incest and being ok with that.

• "Not So Different" Remark: Chris to Bart. This is right after a confrontation between Bart and Cindy, so the implication is, of course, they're alike in that they both have a thing for their sisters.
  Chris: I know you. And whether you want to believe it or not, we're a lot more alike than you think.
  Bart: No I'm not like you. Do you hear me? I am nothing like you.
• The Peeping Tom: There's a window that overlooks the pool, providing Bart with the perfect venue to watch Cindy while she swims and suns herself. She tauntingly waves to him when she catches him doing it. He uses the same window to spy on her when she sneaks out and takes the same "overlooker" position to watch her at a local bar.
• Relationship Upgrade: In the book, Bart and Cindy have a brutally antagonistic relationship, have some sexual tension, and make peace at the end. In the movie the UST is turned slightly up, the antagonism turned slightly down, and they actually get together at the end.
• Retargeted Lust: Bart beds Melodie shortly after Cindy catches him spying on her while she's at the pool. Later, he visits a brothel and selects a prostitute who resembles Cindy. Even creepier, he takes her from behind, possibly to enable him to continue imagining that it's Cindy he's having sex with.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Bart's family becomes increasingly unwilling/unable to handle his unstable behavior.
• Self-Harm: Bart, of the self-flagellation variety.
• Sexy Slit Dress: The dress Cindy wears to Bart's party has a slit all the way up the side.
• Sexy Surfacing Shot:
  • Cindy climbs out of the pool thusly. Bart is watching; she knows, and is playing it up.
  • The first scene we see of Jory and Toni together is Jory doing one. For Jory this has an extra dimension of her first seeing him in a context where he's strong, competent, and doesn't need any assistance or equipment—it's a bit of a flex.
• She Is All Grown Up: In the book Cindy does comment on how hot Bart and Jory are, but much more narrative focus is placed to how Cindy has gotten hot in the two years since Bart last saw her. In the movie, this is Gender Flipped, and the focus is on Cindy looking at Bart.
  Cindy: When did Bart get so effing hot? He used to be such an ugly little cretin.
• Tantrum Throwing: Bart—having just found out about the will—throws and breaks something.
• They Call Me MISTER Tibbs!: Bart tells Toni to call him by his first name rather than Mr. Foxworth. This is framed as flirtatious.
• Wheelchair Antics: Bart jumps on Jory's new electric wheelchair with him and drives it around, to cheer his brother up and show him that being in the chair could be fun.