Reviews of The Secret Garden

CinemaSerfTMDB7.0 / 10

I always remember loving the BBC's Sunday tea-time adaptation of this from 1975, and this is about as close to that as I've seen from the cinema. It's really quite a simple story of the young "Mary" (Kate Maberly) who has to go and live with her uncle (John Lynch) at his stately home after her parents are killed. He proves to be a man with demons of his own which keep him from his home more often than not, and so that leaves her in the care of the fastidious but not unkind "Mrs. Medlock" (Dame Maggie Smith). Left largely to her own devices, she manages to convince her guardian to allow her a small patch of land to plant some flowers. He agrees without realising that the area she has picked has hitherto been closed up and he is also unaware that her explorations around his home one day had seen her encounter his own son "Colin" (Haydon Prowse). He's a bedridden and spoilt young man who was very used to ruling the roost when his father was absent but "Mary" is no pushover, though, and with the help of the amiable groom "Dickon" (Andrew Knott) and unbeknown to "Medlock" the trio begin to embark on quite a life-changing series of adventure that test the mettle of just about everyone. Essentially this is a film about grief; about how people deal with it and/or run from it and ultimately how we have to face it if we are to make any progress with the lives that have been left behind. To that end, both Lennox and Prowse deliver engagingly - especially the latter when he is having one of his many tantrums. Dame Maggie brings a little kindly gravitas to the proceedings and even at it's darkest, there is still a semblance of hope prevailing through what is often quite a gloomy and lonely situation for a "Mary" who refuses to be subsumed by sadness amidst her grand but coldly austere surroundings (and a fair amount of drizzle outside, too). It's odd but I cannot imagine kids getting much from a film like this nowadays, but for adults it is quite a poignant and gently observational presentation of a story that perhaps optimistically but still quite joyously shows what can be achieved given some strength and perseverance.