Sail_a_man

OK, I'm an old guy who loves Christmas movies I admit it. When I saw this was coming on I expected the usual formula of a kid helping Santa Clause out of a fix but to my surprise although frequently mentioned the old guy didn't appear in it, basically it was a love story, with likable characters. I thought it was well acted and was particularly impressed with the acting talents of little Isadora Swann, this appears to be her only acting role to date but hopefully not her last. If you see it coming on watch it, I'm sure you'll enjoy.

Having seen the 1960 version with Hayley Mills and the later 2003 version with Georgina Terry I was looking forward to a different take on the story. In general I was not disappointed, the lead actress who I had never heard of was pretty adorable coupled with a great performance from Elaine Stritch perhaps best remembered by many in Britain for her roll in the TV comedy Two's Company. The one thing I feel let it down a little was the terrible American accents (I'm British), most of the cast being British,I don't know if it ever made it to the USA but I can imagine Americans finding them hilarious. Having said that ignore the accents and enjoy it.

First of all I must point out that the storyline on IMDb bears no relationship to this film, it is actually from Back to the Secret Garden. A little American girl travels to Britain to stay with her aristocratic uncle Lord Craven and his Grand Daughter Margaret.Along with Margaret and a boy named Timothy she rediscovers the secret garden. The film is technically awful but a nice story . First of all the British kids are obviously American although they make a brave attempt at a British accent. Secondly they appear to all come from different periods of time looking at their clothing, Katherine is a modern day girl, Margaret seems to be from the 40's and Timothy appears to be from the 20's. When Katherine is taken ill an American ambulance comes to attend to her and the staff appear to be early 20th century. Despite all the faults it was a nice story, I thoroughly enjoyed it and would recommend it particularly for kids.