Starring: Dixie Egerickx, Amir Wilson, Evan Hayhurst, Colin Firth, Julie Walters, Jemma Powell, Maeve Dermody, Isis Davis
Distributor: StudioCanal
Runtime: 101 mins. Reviewed in Jan 2021
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The Secret Garden, based on a popular novel from the past 100 years, by Frances Hodgson Burnett, has been filmed many times – cinema and television. In fact, it was filmed in 1919, five years before the death of the author.
Which means that an adult audience looking at this new version, will probably have a favourite or favourites from the past. This reviewer came early to The Secret Garden, in 1949, with the black and white version starring Margaret O’Brien and Dean Stockwell, the magic being that when Mary opens the door of the garden, the film bursts into technicolour. Never to be forgotten! Other audiences may remember the 1993 version with Maggie Smith.
The difficulty with having a favourite is that a new version, especially one the audience does not quite approve of because it is not like their favourite, is that there is quite some condemnation. And, for this version, this is particularly the case if one looks at the vast number of negative comments on the Internet movie database. Which is a pity. Obviously people have their favourites but it is sad if it excludes others.
The initial action takes place in India. However, this version moves to the time of Partition, the atmosphere of unrest in 1947 India, British children having to return home to England, an austere and post-war England. Mary suffers some severe shocks. She has been brought up to be superior, arrogant in a colonialist kind of way, expecting to have servants to look after her, to dress her… And she is brought to a decaying mansion, presided over by her uncle, Colin Firth in a rather Rochester vein, who is brooding over the death of his wife. The household is presided over by the dressed in black, severe Mrs Medlock, Julie Walters, who brooks no nonsense.
Mary is confined to her own quarters, forbidden to wander the house on pain of being sent away to school. Of course, she does, finding a room where her mother and her twin sister, met when they were in England, a room for mementos, dresses… But, she also discovers her cousin, Colin, a bedridden hypochondriac, also with a touch of the arrogant.
On the brighter and friendlier side, there is a young woman who is deputed to supervise Mary in daily practical matters, Martha (Isis Davis) who has a young brother, Dickon (Amir Wilson) whom Mary encounters poaching in the fields, whom she befriends. He is to help her in her mission, to bring her cousin, Colin, out of his confinement, out into the air – and, especially, to experience the sun, the beauty of the rather vast magic garden on the property.
This is a robust version of the story. Mary is always a strong character, but with Dixie Egerickx’s performance, she is quite a commanding figure. Dickon is very sympathetic with his involvement. And, Colin begins to mellow.
Obviously, Mary will be found out by Mrs Medlock. But not by her uncle. His brooding builds up to some melodrama, his being unwilling to be reminded of his wife and her illness, some flashbacks for him about his wife’s death which took place peacefully in the magic garden, flashbacks for Mary and memories of her mother’s illness and her not understanding it and feeling hurt.
What better to bring the drama to a conclusion than the uncle setting fire to the mansion, rushing to his son’s room to rescue him, being saved by Mary – and happy reconciliation between father and son, the son getting out of his wheelchair, walking to his father.
As has been said, this is a rather strong version of The Secret Garden. And, of course, there will be many other versions.
Peter Malone MSC
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