This latest — and rather pointless — adaptation of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s beloved children’s novel temporally transplants its orphan protagonist from the turn of the 20th century to 1947. Which appears to have no impact whatsoever on her tale except to make me wonder how lonely Misselthwaite Manor, on the Yorkshire moors, to which she is sequestered, escaped the fate of many a grand English estate in the interwar years of being taxed out of existence.
But no. Young Mary Lennox (Dixie Egerickx: The Little Stranger) finds her uncle, Lord Archibald Craven (Colin Firth: The Happy Prince), knocking around the cavernous place on his own, except for a few servants (Julie Walters [Sherlock Gnomes] and Isis Davis). Later she will discover a cousin, Colin (Edan Hayhurst), sickly and bedridden. The kids think the enormous, rambling house is cursed, for different reasons: she because it served as a hospital for soldiers during the war, he because it’s where his mother died.
It’s all very gloomy and chill, at least on the surface — the film never quite embodies eeriness, merely signposts it. Which feels wrong, in any event. Everyone here is haunted by grief, but the gothic spookiness that soaks the proceedings is ill-judged. Director Marc Munden seems to deliberately misunderstand the story’s overt, inescapable themes of people stuck in sorrow but eager for psychological rebirth and emotional renewal.
That reawakening will come for all via the titular secret garden, which has been locked away as too painful a reminder of that grief (no spoilers for those not familiar with the tale) and which Mary rediscovers in her wanderings around the estate. Here Munden stumbles, too, treating the wonder of the garden’s beauty as neither literal enough nor supernatural enough. When a moment of real magic finally arrives, it is odd and out of place. My imagination scoffed, and my heart remained unmoved.
i loved the 1949 version with margaret o’brien (a very underrated actor) and herbert marshall; and enjoyed the 1987 tv movie with derek jacobi as the cranky old uncle. but i think there are at least 4 other versions so not sure this was necessary. i also read the book when i was very young. pretty sure i liked it a lot.
Oh, well, guess I’ll just have to watch the 1993 version again. Agnieszka Holland delivered us a beautiful version of the story.
Was that Agnieszka Holland? I love that movie – and there’s also a BBC version that I adored – something from the 70s, I think
Whatever happened to Holland? I remember she did a brilliant HBO film – Shot in the Heart – about Gary Gilmore – one of the best things I’ve seen, like unearthing a new Arthur Miller play
She’s still working, but I think she’s been in Europe for the past few years.
Holland has a new film this year, Mr. Jones. I didn’t think it was very good. Maybe I’ll review it…
Oh that’s a shame. The topic is rather unexplored in popular culture and I was hoping the movie would be good. :-(
The theater company I work for almost did the musical, so I enjoyed the script and soundtrack when I read/listened to it. I haven’t read the book, so I can’t comment on its similarity to the story, but the musical makes clear that the garden isn’t supernatural at all; it’s just a garden that has sentimental value to them. When this movie’s trailer came out and I saw the action scenes in the lush CGI garden I thought “they seem to have misread this”
on second thought, this whole comment might be a bit of a spoiler:
yes, the two movies i saw, the walking wounded of the two cousins and their friend dickon came back to a full life as the garden they worked on *physically* started to take shape… the only *hint* of anything magical might be dickon’s way with animals … but quite frankly my sister has that magic touch, so i believe it it.
Whatever the book (or other versions of the story) have to say about whether the garden is supernatural or not, it remains the case that any new interpretation of the story could have that as a factor. But this one doesn’t seem to know what it wants. It’s very frustrating, and quite dull.