
Living in India, Mary Lennox (Kate Maberly), a young, privileged girl, is left orphaned when her parents are killed in an earthquake. She is sent back to England where she goes to live on her Uncle Lord Archibald Craven's (John Lynch's) estate. It is a fairly isolated existence and she has to find things to keep herself occupied. She finds sickly young Colin Craven (Heydon Prowse), and a secret garden.... (Full plot summary below)
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Living in India, Mary Lennox (Kate Maberly), a young, privileged girl, is left orphaned when her parents are killed in an earthquake. She is sent back to England where she goes to live on her Uncle Lord Archibald Craven's (John Lynch's) estate. It is a fairly isolated existence and she has to find things to keep herself occupied. She finds sickly young Colin Craven (Heydon Prowse), and a secret garden.
Leave your thoughts about The Secret Garden.
| Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertLike all great stories for children, The Secret Garden contains powerful truths just beneath the surface. There is always a level at which the story is telling children about more than just events; it is telling them about the nature of life. |
| San Francisco ChronicleEdward GuthmannIt is, first and foremost, a visual delight, a Victorian picture book come to life, from its brief prologue in India through its darkly enchanted recreation of Misselthwaite Manor on the Yorkshire moors. |
| Christian Science MonitorDavid SterrittMeasured against family-film classics like The Wizard of Oz or The Black Stallion, to mention just two of my favorites, The Secret Garden is a bit slender, neither as ingeniously inventive nor as majestically mysterious as the best of its breed. |
| Boston GlobeJay CarrMs. Holland's film of The Secret Garden is elegantly expressive, a discreet and lovely rendering of the children's classic by Frances Hodgson Burnett. |
| The Seattle TimesJeff ShannonWhile Holland may not have imbued the garden with the enchantment so evident in the book, she has sublimely captured the beauty of the garden itself. It offers a simple but overwhelming connection to the kind of paradise we must look harder to find. |
| Chicago TribuneJohanna SteinmetzThe Secret Garden is as much a movie for adults with keen memories of childhood as it is a children's movie. |
| VarietyTodd McCarthyExecuted to near perfection in all artistic departments, this superior adaptation of the perennial favorite novel will find its core public among girls , but should prove satisfying enough to a range of audiences to make it a solid performer for Warner Bros.' family entertainment banner. |
| Baltimore SunSteve McKerrowSparkling, believable performances by young actors, the steadying presence of veteran Maggie Smith, an elegant musical score by Zbigniew Preisner (including a song co-written with Linda Rondstadt) and, especially, an uncommon respect for the stately pace of the source combine to make a lovely movie. |
| Philadelphia InquirerCarrie RickeyThis enchanted tale vividly shows how love heals and nurtures barren souls, makes them flourish like abundant Edens. |
| Independent on SundayQuentin CurtisThe film has charm, without wandering into the realm of magic. |