ktbear2 Review of The Secret Garden

The Secret Garden (1993)

Not the greatest adaptation, but not the worst

[3/10 · 16 July 2010]

I remember seeing this in the movie theatre with my college roommate and my best friend. What irked me at the start was that they chose to kill people off in an earthquake and not with the Cholera. The earthquake seemed pretty cheesy to me then. (The tornado scene in The Wizard of Oz was more realistic.) The reason given by the director and screenwriter was that no one "these days" knows what Cholera is. Ironically, the week after the movie premiered, there was an earthquake in India and people were worried about Cholera breaking out. As a child reading this book cover to cover so many times that I wore out a copy, the fear of a fever and infectious disease that could get anyone was much scarier than the threat of an earthquake. The child playing Mary wasn't sour at all. She was cranky, and shrill. I never felt sorry for her. Dickon was an afterthought. He is what Mary wants to emulate. She even picks up on his Cockney speech (well, his and Ben Wetherstaff). They completely neglect the Martha/Mary/Mrs. Sowerby story. Here is a woman with more mouths than she can feed herself, and she takes Mary, the sour little yellow orphan into her heart and prayers. It is she who gets Archibald to the Manor upon her pleas that this motherless child need love and warmth. There was so much time spent on the cinematography, that true, joyous parts of this book were lost. When Mary calls Colin (That's COLIN, not KOLIN or COLLIN) a Rajah, he asks her to tell her what one is. That isn't in the book, but he behaves like a spoilt prince as they go outside. That's not the message in the book. In the book, he is a little more awkward and foolish about it. This Mary seems more annoyed at her cousin and his "hump" than defiant. Mary's defiance and determination in the book are what give Colin is gumption to get better. There is none of that in the book. It is a story of two spoiled only children who have to learn to live with someone else their age. There is also no mention of Colin taking pictures and getting jealous of Mary and Dickon in the book. It's an innocent story, why put a modern spin of heated tension between two kids? I do have to admit, seeing it again, that Sleezeball Gerry from Sliding Doors playing Uncle Archie was a bit of a treat. John Lynch is an underrated actor, and I hope to see him as a truly good guy someday. Dame Maggie was very good as the Icy Miss Metlock. I never liked the character, and I still don't. Well done. Someday, maybe before I pass on to my own garden, I will see a version that is truly faithful to the book, with great child actors (the 1949 version is hard to watch because even though the best child actors of the time are in it, they still seem wooden) who actually speak with British accents and a Mary who goes from crisp, Indian influenced British to Cockney. A version that gives us a Mrs. Sowerby and a scene in which Martha talks to her mother about the sour, little, girl. A Dickon who inspires Mary and Colin. While the book continues to run swells in my heart, no movie version of this book has done the same. Oh, and don't even get me started on the versions of "A Little Princess". All I can say is that putting a little African descended scullery maid (read slave) in Victorian England would make William Wilberforce (See the movie or read "Amazing Grace") turn in his grave. -K