The Secret Garden

[osprey_archer]

When 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!

Comments

[troisoiseaux]

But I suspect that a modern adaptation would want to make The Secret Garden Dark, Man, Dark, which would be awful

There actually was a new adaption of The Secret Garden that came out last year! I haven't seen it (...I actually haven't seen the 1990s one, either) but it doesn't appear to have gone grimdark/gritty reboot with it.

[staranise]

Yeah, I was going to say, I haven't seen it (I'd be willing to, but making myself sit through any kind of movie I haven't seen before is really hard) but it seems to lean extra hard on the whimsy. Mary adopts a scruffy little dog. I don't know if I'll like it in the end, but it might be interesting.

[osprey_archer]

I'm a little concerned that the casting of Colin First as the lord of Misselthwaite Manor means the adults will get more attention than they ought to in a Secret Garden adaptation, which ought to be firmly focused on the children. I'll find out if I ever see it, I suppose.

[osprey_archer]

That's good to hear! I was definitely envisioning someone giving The Secret Garden an Anne with an E type treatment and I noped the fuck out with all my soul.

[kore]

It's been a while since I've seen it (a LONG while) but I remember thinking that it was one of the very few adaptations I'd seen that really had the feel of the book it was based on, if that makes sense. And of course it's beautiful.

[osprey_archer]

Yes, it makes perfect sense, and you're so right. I think it's important for film adaptations to be directed by someone who *loves* the book, and studios so often don't bother, and then you end up with something that is either good in its own right (but not like the book) or just plain "how did you start at the book and end up with THIS monstrosity?" I've never gotten over the Ella Enchanted adaptation which as far as I could tell was made by someone with nothing but contempt for the original novel.

[anna_wing]

Yes! I can forgive a lot of the daft decisions that Peter Jackson made with "The Lord of the Rings" (Denethor, ahem) simply because it was so clearly a labour of love.

I think of the "The Secret Garden" as part of a genre for which I have no name, but which includes things like "The Enchanted April", 9the film of which I liked), and "Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day" (haven't seen the film yet, but will get round to it some day).

[osprey_archer]

I walked out of the theater after The Two Towers CUT TO THE HEART by his Faramir choices, which clearly betrayed a failure to understand Faramir's nobility and goodness! But of course in the end I went back for the third movie and the trilogy holds a special place in my heart, because not just Peter Jackson but so many of the people involved loved the story so much.

I adored the film Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day - it led me to the book and from there helped open up the world of mid-century English literature to me.

[littlerhymes]

Oh I do love this movie a lot. Yes, LEAN into the BYRONIC HAIR!

Mary and Colin are so believable to me in this (and in the book too). They are petulant and sulky and annoyed in the way I remember feeling sometimes at that age! AND TODAY.

[osprey_archer]

Don't we ALL sometimes feel petulant and sulky and annoyed, and isn't it cathartic to see Mary and Colin really let it rip? There are good reasons why it is not socially acceptable for adult human beings to act like this (I might like to be sulky whenever I want, but do I really want to deal with everyone else being sulky whenever they want? no i do not) but damn it's fun to watch.

[landofnowhere]

I just watched this on an airplane -- which is probably not the best place to watch it, because the movie really plays up the darkness of the indoor scenes -- but it was a good way to pass the time! And yes, the mask plot has aged ... interestingly ... in these times. (Also I hadn't watched it since I was a kid, so I had the "oh, Mrs. Medlock is Professor McGonagall" moment. I don't think I've actually seen Maggie Smith in anything else, but she definitely has A Type.) I liked Martha also, as well as everything you said.

[osprey_archer]

An airplane is probably not the best way to watch anything (I watched Thor 2 on an airplane, and I came out with no idea what happened...) but I'm glad you enjoyed The Secret Garden anyway! Yes, Maggie Smith is quite McGonagallish here, and Martha is a delight.