Good movie. I do wonder if I’ve ever seen these kid actors later when they got older. Looking at some of their IMDB listings, I’m guessing I didn’t. But man, there’s something so familiar about the 10 year old main character Mary. I could have sworn I’ve seen her, maybe as an older child or as an adult.
Two more days until spoiler free comments.
I am kind of remembering why I didn’t like the book, but it did remind me of why I equated this to a Spring movie.
Come now, it’s a heartwarming tale of how with a little prodding and a curious mind, even the ridiculously privileged can overcome adversity. What’s not to like?
Ha! I was wondering if I was going to be the only one to mention class issues since it was such a blaring thing to me. :)
I can’t tell you. It’s not the 23rd yet!
It is now! SPOILERS ALLOWED!
So the The Secret Garden is a juvenile fiction, a Children’s Novel even. This means I think I had to read this in elementary school, alongside books like the BFG, Kavik the Wolf Dog and whatever the name of that book was that where the ghost cat came back and looked after her kittens.
It was right during that period of time when kids used to be taken to the library and you just picked books you wanted to read, and record hours of reading no matter what it was, and when you start getting assigned reading. I’m to old for the movie, this version, to be available then.
So my initial reaction then was just a complete lack of interest and inability to really relate to anything British. Later, probably Jr. High, High School, and hugely with a struggled introduction with Pride and Prejudice, I got this “Brit” kind of take, both the way they do period pieces and the visual of it.
Now. I have a different issue. It’s still a Children’s Novel which makes the story and the meaning a little too simplistic. The not taking care of something so it dies but the ability to still be able to do that, restore something by nurturing later, the boy and the garden, is very sweet and heart-warming, especially with the father in the end but it’s not something that holds my interest.
Visually they did a great job with the garden. The actors are good, especially Mary, but the movie is just slow and lack of complexity didn’t help. The trailer sure made it seem a lot more exciting then it is. It’s compared to the Black Stallion, which they compare the movie to because the same guy did it, I liked a lot back then. Completely different kind of movies though.
Sorry folks, I had my thoughts written up prior to the spoiler deadline, but I keep forgetting to post when I get home from work. This is a reminder to myself: Secret Garden thoughts tonight! :)
Thanks for this by the way. I saw a bunch of other meaning in the movie, possibly, but for some reason I completely blanked on this message. Now that you lay it out like that, it’s so obvious!
I remember when Secret Garden came out in theaters in 1993, it was the first movie that wasn’t animated that I’d seen come to theaters being rated G. And I remember for years, any time I had a conversation with someone and the topic went to ratings, and someone claimed that there were no G rated movies except animated movies, I would pipe up: No wait, I remember a movie called Secret Garden that was rated G! So even though I’d never seen this movie, I’d discussed that little boring technicality about it a lot. But maybe that aspect was not as boring to a child. If you could run away from your family, you could watch this movie unattended in a movie theater with no adult supervision.
I enjoyed this movie quite a bit. Right from the opening scene where our protagonist is being dressed, it glues you to the screen. When the little girl’s parents died, I thought, aha, she’ll have to learn how to dress herself! She’s about to come to a rude awakening. But she gets taken to a clearly extremely rich uncle’s estate. But wait, the housekeeper lady says she’ll have to dress herself! But then a younger housekeeper who Mary treats quite rudely comes around to dress Mary after all.
Sigh. So she’s never going to learn how to dress herself is she? Is she going to remain a spoiled child who will never ever have to worry about money I guess? Certainly, as one of the common folk myself, my sympathies were immediately with the housekeepers and servants in this estate. Surely they would become friends with her and she would learn humility and that all human beings are equal. But no, that’s not what this movie is about.
What is this movie about? That when something is secret, it’s more fun? (True). Is it about the healing power of gardens (True). Is it about the healing power of friendship (True). Is it about the dismal state of medicine 19th century? (True). I’m not sure exactly. Maybe all of the above. Overall I enjoyed it quite a bit. There’s something about a kid’s movie, if it’s well acted, you get lost in the wonder and juvenile emotions of it, because you remember being in that phase yourself.
I want to do a special shoutout to whoever the animal wrangler was in this movie. The birds in this movie behave just right as if on queue. As do the dogs, and the sheep, and the deer. I do believe this is the first time I’ve seen baby sheep in a movie, and they are sooooo adorable. More movies should get baby sheep.
Well, I didn’t enjoy this movie, though that probably has more to do with me than the merits of the movie. It’s very much a children’s movie, with nary a nod to adults other than parents. And I find it very hard to get over the class aspects of the story which seem to alternate between on the nose and oblivious. Even as a relatively posh person every fibre of my being hates these over-privileged brats.
The one comment I have that is related to the movie’s own merits is that it felt old. I was genuinely startled to learn that it was made in the 90s. It feels like it was made no later than the early 80s. Maybe it’s just because I associate this sort of “classic” children’s story getting filmed in the 60s through to the 80s (Swiss Family Robinson, Swallows and Amazons, Pippi Longstocking etc), but even the quality of the film stock on my DVD seemed old.
As is my seemingly predestined fate these past months, Physical therapy ramped up, kicking my butt. Combined with a Project deadline, this left me trying to watch this film after I went to bed. Tired as I have been, this led to me attempting to do so literally three times…before falling asleep 10-15 minutes into it. Normally I use naptime as pejorative for a film, but here i ascribe it far more to my state of wiped-out-ness rather than any fault of the film.
I plan to see this and comment upon it this weekend, as it is Nesrie’s selection, and I really wanna watch it…and feel bad that I haven’t.
I shall have the May Movie club thread up tomorrow.