Sadly Over-hyped

Let's be realistic.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

Mary Lennox was born and raised in India before her parents died horrifically there. She is sent to England to live with her mysterious uncle in a large estate house. Maggie Smith played the housekeeper. Mary must learn to survive without her parents in this foreign land with strangers. The film does a surprisingly good job in showing how Mary changes. She befriends the servant child, Martha, and her brother. She learns about a family secret and a secret garden near the property.

I am a seventh-grade teacher, and every year I use this film to teach basic film analysis. The students watch for lighting, camera angles, music, special effects, plot, costumes, and shots. Every year I think about using a different film, but the reaction I get from my students every year reassures me that this film is still relevant and a classic! They love it. I would highly recommend this film for children grades 4 - 7. Very suitable, and it has wonderful themes.

A young child is sent from a far country to live with a relative in a gloomy old aristocratic pile. But there are dark mysteries concerning both the estate and the relative. In the course of solving them, the child brings a new understanding to both herself and her relative.From this outline of the story of The Secret Garden, it should be clear how similar it is to the better known book and film Little Lord Fauntleroy. Both are based on the immensely popular 19th century young people's books by British-American author Frances Hodgson Burnett, and both have been the subject of numerous theatrical, film, and television versions. Of the half dozen or so film/TV treatments, many feel that this 1949 version with Margaret O'Brien, Herbert Marshall, Dean Stockwell, and Elsa Lanchester is the best. The acting is very good to excellent, and the atmosphere of the old house with its ruined garden effectively conveyed. The screenplay is co-authored by Robert Ardrey, who later became well known as a popular science author for such works as African Genesis. An interesting feature of the film from a cinematic viewpoint is the sudden switch from black and white to color (as was done famously in The Wizard of Oz) to highlight the happier scenes.Though the film, like the book, is ostensibly for young people, it's one that can equally be enjoyed by adults. Of course it's sentimental, but this is the type of film where the sentimentality is the whole point: viewers who dislike sentimentality shouldn't be watching it.

To be honest, I remember seeing previews of this movie way back when it came out (in 1993) and thinking to myself, "WHY would anyone want to see such a film and why would anyone make it?" Well, about five years later it appeared on TV one night and I started watching, fully expecting to turn it off within 20 minutes or so. WOW -- was I ever wrong! What I saw was beautiful and captivating, artistic and entrancing -- filmmaking of the highest order. "The Secret Garden" is a movie of such artistic quality that it ranks up there with the hallowed original "Apocalypse Now" (although they're totally different genres). It's no surprise that Francis Ford Coppola had his hand in both pics -- he was, of course, the director of "Apocalypse Now" and he's the executive producer of "The Secret Garden." In any event, the cinematography is breathtaking and the score is awe-inspiring, ranking with the best in cinematic history.***PLOT SPOILER*** The story's about a spoiled 10-year old English girl, orphaned in India, who comes home to live on her uncle's vast estate in the early 1900s. The girl, Mary, finds herself trapped in a mysterious, colossal manor -- almost a castle -- tyrannically managed by a life-stifling witch, Mrs. Medlock, in the frequent absence of her uncle, Lord Cravin. Because Mary is intelligent, independent and sly she is able to reconnoiter the manor and learn its forbidding secrets. The biggest secret is that her aunt died ten years earlier and her son, Colin, still lives there, albeit confined to a bed, sickly and unable to walk. Her uncle never healed from this heartbreak.Mary discovers another secret in her explorations, a hidden garden, closed off and neglected since her aunt's death. After meeting the sickly and sad Colin, Mary inevitably finds a way to sneak him into the garden along with her pal Dickon. She senses that Colin isn't as sick as everyone is convinced; she knows the best thing would be to get him out of the dreary castle and the oppressive clutches of Mrs. Medlock. Mary and her secret garden are the keys to restoring health, life and freedom to Colin, Lord Cravin and the gloomy manor.***END SPOILER*** "The Secret Garden" is sort of a 1990's version of the outstanding "Pollyanna" with Hayley Mills (1960). Both pics involve a young girl restoring a spirit of joy and liberty to a lifeless community. The difference is that Mary is not even remotely the "glad girl" Pollyanna. In fact, look for the hilarious line from the old gardener who responds to Mary's puzzlement concerning her lack of friends."The Secret Garden" is no doubt labeled a "children's film," which is a shame because it transcends such a limiting category. The ending's too quaint for my tastes but, nevertheless, this is a beautiful work of wonder and deep mystery, which can be enjoyed by people of all ages -- children and adults.The film was shot in England and runs 101 minutes.GRADE: A