Medlock (Maggie Smith) lock horns, as the desperately lonely Mary is kind of an asshole - that is, until she finds a hidden garden on the grounds that once belonged to her dead aunt and begins to take care of it alongside a groundskeeping cutie named Dickon (Andrew Knott) and her cousin Colin (Heydon Prowse), who is being casually Munchausen-ed by his dad and Medlock.
Almost instantaneously, she and the head housekeeper Mrs.
The story of The Secret Garden is inherently dark: 10-year-old Mary Lennox (Kate Maberly) is orphaned after a devastating earthquake in British-colonized India, and is shipped off to a freaky mansion owned by her vaguely terrifying, widowed uncle (John Lynch) in England. Not only is it lush and stunning, overflowing with verdant English gardens shot on film by Roger Deakins, but it’s also incredibly sophisticated for a children’s film, giving its young audience the sort of intellectual and emotional credit that movies made for kids rarely do anymore. Frances Hodgson Burnett’s book has been adapted to film four times - the latest version is out this week, and stars Colin Firth as the aforementioned looming British uncle - but Holland’s version is by far the best. There were some elements of racism and classism I didn't like but the book made up for it.Photo: Murray Close/Am Zoetrope/Warner Bros/Kobal/ShutterstockĪgnieszka Holland’s extremely goth 1993 adaptation of The Secret Garden has everything: earthquakes, emotionally distant orphans, abandonment, cold and looming British mansions, cold and looming British uncles, bitchy housekeepers, old-timey boys slowly dying in majestic bedrooms, kids asking each other if they are ghosts, Munchausen by proxy, and gorgeous landscaping. I also think the ending of the book had a wonderful conclusion In terms of mental health, until you yourself take the initiative to get better, nothing and no amount of love, doctors or money in the world can help you. I mostly loved reading about Mary's adventures in the manor, the garden, her curiosity and slow development after being exposed to love- and how even someone so back in the past predicted that parental neglect is the root of unloving little children. Despite the seemingly gloomy topics, The Secret Garden was a light and easy read as well (not wordy) which was a pleasant surprise. A lot of people don't realize that anxiety is more than nervousness, it burns into rage and irritability and desperation. As someone who has struggled with anxiety, hypochondria, and on-and-off agoraphobia for years and had to deal with frustrated adults who didn't understand, I really related a lot to Colin, particularly during his fits when he was sobbing he was going to die- that intense feeling of doom.
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