The Secret Garden

The story begins with young Mary losing her mother and father suddenly in India. I don't know what they died from but they were rich and Mary is their only child and gets sent to live with another rich man in England. Mary is spoiled, bossy and wants her way all the time. In half of the movie she says things that make you dislike her. She does not like people and no one likes her.

As the movie goes on she explains she does not like herself because she believed her mother only like pretty things and she was not pretty Mary is about 10-12 years old and very curious. The house she is moved to is like a castle. The man that owns it has a lump on his back and trouble walking. The man also has a son Colin about 14 who is like an invalid. He thinks he has a lump on his back and won't talk with anyone except the house help. His father does not visit him either.

In the movie the important characters are Mary, Dickon and Colin. Dickon a boy about 14 is from a big family who work and go to church. Dickon provides Mary with friendship and courage she never knew. They find the secret garden and the story behind why it was closed by the owner.

This movie is touching. It brings out the different weaknesses people have and believe they will never overcome. It brings friends to trust each other. It brings out lies about themselves that they believed for years which kept them from being humanly happy. Now with the help of Dickon who has insight and is very kind they grow as a group and bring love to people who have not experienced it like themselves and unite the father and his son Colin in a wonderful beautiful ending.

The scenery is beautiful the birds in the trees and the animals that communicate with Dickon is so nice and the music in the course of the movie is loving.

See the movie if you can. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=870KgkHdJLE

It is on Youtube and you can also download it if Firefox is your browser you can get addons to download.

Whilst I have to agree with many of the criticisms of other reviewers I did find this movie quite enjoyable. But why on earth did they use American kids to play Mary, Dickon and Colin, Gennie James was one of my favourite child actresses of the eighties but she couldn't hide her American accent, and as for Barret Oliver, he had the weirdest accent I have ever heard, I will however give 6 out of 10 for a brave attempt by Jadrien Stelle. The accent problem was not confined to the American cast members, Martha is supposed to be a local Yorkshire girl but spoke with a Cockney accent. I also think the start and end sequences were totally unnecessary, also making Colin and Mary unrelated quite spoilt things. My vote for the best version would have be for the 1975 BBC adaptation although this may not have been seen in the USA.Another reviewer asks how Colin joined the army when he needed to use a walking stick, he obviously missed the point that Colin had been injured in the war and had just left hospital

I was disappointed with the Hollander version because it failed in comparison to this. I didnt grow up with child lit except what leaked through tv. Seeing this at age 35 was a bit of a revelation. Reminded me of Shirley Temple afternoon movies of my pre adolesence. The young actors are adequate but the adult cast is outstanding. Hallmark used to produce real quality, primetime, major network specials. This is from that era and not the formulaic factory it became.

This 1987 version of the Secret Garden is a mixed bag: on the one hand the locations are beautiful, on the other the production values and acting ranges from great to just plain awful! The best performances are given by Derek Jacobi and Gennie James. Gennie comes off as a 1980s version of Margaret O`Brien taking to the role of Mary Lennox with O'Brien-like skill.

In conclusion: Good but could have been so much better

This version of The Secret Garden is a much darker version, beginning with the horrifying deaths of Mary's parents from the plague, you see Mary have her life ripped away from her. She is angry, spoiled and dealing with the grief.

The score is haunting, the music one of Chopin's darker Nocturnes. The contrast between the darkness of her life, the house, the plague to the garden before her is well presented, and the acting for it's time is very well done. I believe this is better than the updated version, as it evokes more feeling from the viewer.

The only reason the score is lower than 10 is due to the age of the film. It's clearly outdated, and unlike the classics will not stand the test of time.