Back to the Secret Garden (2000)
Review by Dindrane
Film:
DVD:

Written by Joe Wiesenfeld, based upon characters in Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden
Directed by Michael Tuchner
Starring Cherie Lunghi, Camilla Belle, Aled Roberts, Justin Girdler, Florence Hoath, Joan Plowright, George Baker, and David Warner

Rating: G

Anamorphic: No.

My Advice: Rent it.

It’s been thirty years since Mary, Dickon, and Colin restored the secret garden of Mistlethwaite back to life. Since then, Mistlethwaite Manor has been converted into an orphanage. Mary, now Lady Craven (Lunghi), is in charge of the Manor until Colin is appointed ambassador to America. One of the orphans needs an operation that can only be performed in America, so Mary, travels to an orphanage in Virginia to arrange for an orphan from there to be exchanged with the one who needs the operation.

In her absence, she leaves the key to the garden in the hands of Miss Martha Sowerby (Plowright), Dickon’s matron sister who can’t seem to find the door to the garden, even with the key in her hand. Martha determines to call the stonemason and have a “practical door put in.” Back in America, Mary chooses a young gardener named Lizzie (Belle) as the one to come and live in England, just in time to face a new crisis with the Garden--it’s dying, and no one can seem to help it. Now Lizzy and her stuffy friend Robert (Roberts) must duplicate the magic of young Mary, Colin, and Dickon, if the Secret Garden is to be saved at all.

The acting is really quite good. Camilla Belle does a wonderful job as Lizzie, essentially carrying the film on her young shoulders. Justin Girdler as her would-be sweetheart and Aled Roberts as her genuine friend and crush Robert are both also quite good. Even the character of Geraldine, who makes no sense whatsoever, is well-played by Florence Hoath. One of the real standouts of the film, however, has to be the wonderful Joan Plowright, as Martha Sowerby, who is always a great actress, but here manages to be sympathetic while going on about rules and punishment.

The scenes and costuming are amazingly lovely of course, as grand as the Manor is. The garden is beautiful, even as it’s supposedly fading, and the fashions are a fascinating blend of 1950s and English countryside.

The downside to the film is that the magical aspects are much more heavy-handed. In The Secret Garden, there’s little more made explicit than the mysticism of Dickon and the legend that one can only find the door when the key is in one’s hand. Back to the Secret Garden, on the other hand, shows the door disappear behind Lizzy in a glittery gold special effect, with Dickon’s ghostly panpipes, as the ivy moves to cover the door. The animals surround her as they did Dickon, but Lizzy, while adorable enough, lacks the subtle wisdom of quiet Dickon.

The audio and video are fine here, but it is a shame that there’s only a full-frame version, especially during the important garden scenes. There are also no features to speak of, and it would have been nice to have heard, for example, from the writer, speaking to the challenge of writing a modern sequel for a beloved classic.

If you’re charmed by images of happy foxes, cute bunnies, and adorable hedgehogs frolicking, then you’ll almost certainly enjoy Back to the Secret Garden. Gardeners of any age, of course, will also enjoy the importance of flowers and plants, as well as the almost mystical reverence for gardeners. No movie with a ferret could be bad, after all.