Le Secret de Moonacre

In London, young, almost-a-teen Maria (Dakota Blue Richards) has just lost her father. Her nanny, Miss Heliotrope (Juliet Stevenson) tries to comfort her. When the will is read, Maria is dumbfounded to find out that she must move to the countryside and live with an unknown uncle, Benjamin (Ioan Gruffudd) at a remote estate called Moonacre. With no other choice, Maria and Miss H make the journey. Immediately, her uncle's gruff manner upsets the young lady. Yet, over the course of the next few weeks, magical things begin to happen to Maria. Elves appear and tell her of Moonacre's curse, that is, a pearl necklace was stolen from the Moon Princess long ago, by Maria's relations. In order to break the spell, the gems must be returned and are said to be hidden somewhere on the premises. Can Maria find them? The young girl also has to deal with dangerous, evil neighbors who inhabit a dark castle beyond the woods that separate the two properties. This family, headed by a horrid man (Tim Curry) wants to capture the girl to prevent her from breaking the curse. Also, living in the woods, is a beautiful lady (Natascha McElhone) who was once in love with Benjamin. Unhappily, their engagement went awry and the two are mild enemies, at present. But, since this beautiful woman knows the woods, can she help Maria in her fight against the wicked castle? This is one very lovely film, as beautiful as the moon, as they say. The art direction and special effects are superb, making the movie enchanting to watch. Also fine is the cast, from the stars to the supporting members. With very fine sets, costumes, script and direction as well, why wait for the moon's next appearance? Get this one today!

Having seen Dakota Blue Richards in The Golden Compass which I loved immensely, I was excited to see her again in another fantasy movie. And while this is a fantasy movie of a different type, I must say I enjoyed this just as much. This movie has a really simple plot which develops slowly but I do think most things are explained in one way or another. However I would have loved a bit more background story about some of the characters such as Robin and his father Coeur De Noir. I have not read the book so I am sure the director left some things out that weren't developed in the movie. There is obviously a suggestion there could be a relationship between Robin and Maria. The ending seemed a bit rushed and I had loved they gave that some more attention, some more screening time. I must say that this movie was maybe not so good if Dakota didn't give such a strong performance as Maria Merryweather. The others really couldn't have carried this movie but play their role well. There is some humor in it in the characters of Miss Heliotrope (she is a little burpy) and the chef (French accent so cliché) which the children will love. I didn't find that funny but wasn't bothered with it either. The story in itself was serious and good and that was what mattered to me. And there are fantasy elements like unicorn, black lion which are mostly symbolic. It's no Chronicles of Narnia, not as overwhelming as Golden Compass or Stardust but a sweet little movie that has its place in the fantasy genre. I had no regrets seeing it.

While the plot is a bit confusing, the entire film is beautiful in its aesthetics and has a strong message for girls to take control of their own life and fight for themselves. Dakota Blue Richards is absolutely brilliant in her 2nd major film role and Tim Curry and Ioan Gruffudd add to the magic. Harry Potter fans may see some familiar imagery, for the novel it was based on "The Little White Horse" was a favorite of J.K. Rowling when she was a child. This film deserves much more attention and has much more depth than any of the flashy CGI effects shows at the theaters today.

Read my full review: http://kingdomofcult.blogspot.com/2015/05/cult- movie-of-may-17th-secret-of.html

One of my all time favourite movies, the storyline is great, the action was amazing, and the romance wasn't the main point of the story line the budding romance formed naturally and wasn't focused on until the feelings were realised. This was very refreshing, I loved every thing about this movie. I would highly recommend that anyone should watch it. A fairytale with mystery, romance, a curse, and magic.

Fairy tales are movies that either sink or swim when it comes to the silver screen, based upon the merits of their story and the characters that exist to propel the fantasy past the absurd and into the tangibly real. The Secret of Moonacre is unfortunately an example of absurdist fairytale done with little restraint or tact; the story is robust with cliché devices, the characters flat and cursed with banal dialogue, and the backstory, costume designs, production—everything just falls far short of what you may come to expect fro productions of this nature. To be fair, there are certain elements inherent to Csupo's outing here that borders on mildly entertaining if only for the references that they make to other works, yet such moments are far and few between and never truly dispel the sour taste of hackneyed amateurism that permeates the majority of Moonacre's ridiculously generic universe.

At its core, The Secret of Moonacre strives to be part adventure fairytale and part whimsy comedy stitched together with undercooked themes of pride, corruption and the power of love to overcome all shadows of the human heart. Ostensibly, this mix has all the elements to make for an enjoyable family feature, yet burdened with a plodding pace and characters that never come off the screen in any manner, the Secret of Moonacre is a dull one. Centring around young teenage girl Maria (Dakota Blue Richards) as she moves into her extravagant and eccentric uncle's mansion in the Middle of Nowhere Forest under the protection of nanny Miss Heliotrope (Juliet Stevenson who serves as a trite source of comic relief every now and then with her biggest character trait being an impromptu belch), Goudge's story is one built upon established ground-works for any old fantasy tale. Sure, fair enough—there's nothing wrong with building upon already tried and tested methods—yet very little is done beyond this to help Moonacre feel like a tale of its own.

Perhaps the greatest and most obvious detractive trait inherent to Alborough's adaptation however is simply through its writing which seems to go through the motions at each and every turn. The result is a feature that plods along through countless cliché and predictable contrivances to the point where all fantastical elements are lost within the generic gloop that is the whole backstory and focus point of Moonacre's world. About half way into the movie, it should be no surprise then that the production boils down to one of absurd ridicule—without the feeling of otherworldly mysticism to back up all the theatrical dialogue, sets and costumes, Csupo neglects his feature to being bland and utterly forgettable in spite of its striking visuals and over-the-top performances. In fact, with the exception of perhaps Ioan Gruffudd , the majority of the acting ensemble here feel just as disconnected to the story's fantasy as everything else does. It's not just bad—it's distracting and downright laughable when any sort of tension or conflict is pushed down the throat with little to no tangible reason to believe in it.

Yet this neglect to raising the suspension of disbelief is what ultimately stops The Secret of Moonacre from ever truly coming off the screen. Perhaps with a greater budget, some bigger stars and a re-write or two, Csupo could have made something more than a sporadically pretty treat for the senses, yet as it stands nothing of the sort of achieved throughout its bumbling and overly melodramatic runtime. This in turn makes recommending Moonacre a lost cause; young females may be able to enjoy all the unicorns, pretty dresses and coy humour to the extent that everything else is ignored, yet even this assertion serves as a broad test of the imagination—which is ironically more than Csupo manages here through his excruciatingly mundane two hour exercise in creating yet another Pedestrian Fantasy By Numbers.

• A review by Jamie Robert Ward (http://www.invocus.net)