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The Secret Garden
Jul. 31st, 2021 09:08 amWhen the Artcraft showed Agniezka Holland’s The Secret Garden, I was there with bells on. Who doesn’t want to see that beautiful garden on the big screen? And it’s exactly as enchanting as you might expect.
In some ways, the adaptation hasn’t aged well. I suspect that a modern adaptation would deal with India more thoughtfully. (It feels weird to consider an adaptation from the early 1990s not modern, but it is almost thirty years ago.) And, this one is pandemic specific, but the scene where Mary refuses to wear a mask in Colin’s room, thrusting it away while snarling “I can’t breathe,” caused some audible gasps in the theater.
But I suspect that a modern adaptation would want to make The Secret Garden Dark, Man, Dark, which would be awful. What makes this movie sing is its unironic embrace of the source material. Frances Hodgson Burnett was a writer with absolutely zero restraint, and this movie just goes for it.
The MOST gothic house, the literal wails of a child resounding through its halls. The EMOEST tortured Byronic uncle (his hairstyle never fails to make me laugh). The secret garden behind the high ivy-covered walls which comes to life like the platonic ideal of a garden. Dickon with animals following him around like he’s a Disney princess! Children’s book adaptations should all be made by people who love the source this much.
Best of all, I love Mary and Colin, who are both SO incredibly bratty, but in a way which speaks to the bratty child in us all. I don’t usually enjoy bratty children in movies because they often seem to exist simply to be annoying, but with Mary and Colin you have a sense of their interiority: they act like this because they don’t know how else to behave. Once they meet each other, they finally have some impetus to modify their behavior, because they can see the other won’t be their friend if they remain in Full Brat mode all the time.
Also it’s just so great when they start full-throatedly shouting at each other. It feels so cathartic to watch them express their feelings with such! great! verve!
In some ways, the adaptation hasn’t aged well. I suspect that a modern adaptation would deal with India more thoughtfully. (It feels weird to consider an adaptation from the early 1990s not modern, but it is almost thirty years ago.) And, this one is pandemic specific, but the scene where Mary refuses to wear a mask in Colin’s room, thrusting it away while snarling “I can’t breathe,” caused some audible gasps in the theater.
But I suspect that a modern adaptation would want to make The Secret Garden Dark, Man, Dark, which would be awful. What makes this movie sing is its unironic embrace of the source material. Frances Hodgson Burnett was a writer with absolutely zero restraint, and this movie just goes for it.
The MOST gothic house, the literal wails of a child resounding through its halls. The EMOEST tortured Byronic uncle (his hairstyle never fails to make me laugh). The secret garden behind the high ivy-covered walls which comes to life like the platonic ideal of a garden. Dickon with animals following him around like he’s a Disney princess! Children’s book adaptations should all be made by people who love the source this much.
Best of all, I love Mary and Colin, who are both SO incredibly bratty, but in a way which speaks to the bratty child in us all. I don’t usually enjoy bratty children in movies because they often seem to exist simply to be annoying, but with Mary and Colin you have a sense of their interiority: they act like this because they don’t know how else to behave. Once they meet each other, they finally have some impetus to modify their behavior, because they can see the other won’t be their friend if they remain in Full Brat mode all the time.
Also it’s just so great when they start full-throatedly shouting at each other. It feels so cathartic to watch them express their feelings with such! great! verve!
