The Secret Garden

The Fourth Film Adaptation of the Novel the Secret Garden

Drama Fantasy Family
99 min     6.3     2020     France

Overview

The Secret Garden is a British fantasy drama film based on the novel of the same name by Frances Hodgson Burnett.

The film The Secret Garden tells about a spoiled girl named Mary, whose family lives in India. Her parents die of a cholera epidemic, and the orphaned child is sent to live with her only relative in the UK. The girl's uncle turns out to be Lord Craven, who owns a gigantic mansion with countless rooms, where the newcomer is strictly forbidden to enter. Tormented by boredom and loneliness, Mary wanders the surroundings and finds a carefully hidden garden. As soon as she begins to research it, the girl gradually changes and reveals her family's secrets.

Screenwriter Jack Thorne made significant adjustments to the original story. He pushed the timeline forward, so the film takes place in 1947 when England comes to life after the war. He also crossed out a few minor characters and added a charming shaggy-dog.

The new The Secret Garden is wholly focused on family viewing, so the screenwriter removed the topic of lack of parental love for their child, which was clear from the book's first pages.

Reviews

Peter McGinn wrote:
I had the opportunity to watch this new production of the classic Frances Hodgson Burnett novel shortly after viewing the 1975 seven part series based on the same book. I thought it would be interesting to compare the two versions. On the plus side for this movie version, the quality of the production is much higher, with stunning colors and lovely scenes and vistas. It is also very imaginative. In fact, there is a strong element of fantasy throughout, showing both scenes from the past and images in the present time of people who are dead as if they were still alive. Of course, it being a movie instead of a seven part series means that there is less time to develop the plot, so some is left out. And perhaps for the modern audience, there is a dramatic plot device used to hasten the ending that I suspect was not in the book at all. Now I feel like a I should re-read the book after decades since my first reading, just to compare these adaptations to the source material. Not that I would automatically decide the one closest to the story is the better one, but just out of curiosity. I think both versions have reason to like them: this new version for the camera work and imaginative scenes, and the old series for the patient plot and simple,charm.

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