Movies - The Secret Garden

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	Movies - The Secret Garden

The Secret Garden is a 1993 American Zoetrope film adaptation of the book of the same name by Frances Hodgson Burnett. It starred three unknown British children in the key roles of Mary Lennox, Colin Craven and Dickon.

Primary cast:

Kate Maberly
: Mary Lennox
Heydon Prowse : Colin Craven
Andrew Knott
: Dickon
Maggie Smith
: Mrs. Medlock
Laura Crossley : Martha
John Lynch
: Lord Craven
Irène Jacob
: Mary's Mother/Aunt
Walter Sparrow : Ben Weatherstaff
Frank Baker : Government official
Colin Bruce : Maj. Lennox

Awards

Award wins:

Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Music
– (Zbigniew Preisner)

Award nominations:

BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role - (Maggie Smith
)

Adaptation accuracy

The Secret Garden is adapted from the 1909 novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett. The movie strongly resembles the book and pulls the general plotline straight from it.

In both book and movie, the story follows orphaned Mary Lennox from her home in India to her Uncle Archibold Craven's hundred-room house, Misselthwaite, in Yorkshire, England. Mary is sour and somewhat unlikable. Martha, a Yorkshire girl working as a maid, and her brother Dickon, a boy who can talk to animals, befriend and help her to heal and grow. She discovers her aunt's secret garden, which has been locked for ten years and enlists Dickon to help her bring it to life.

Hidden away in the gloomy house is Mary's cousin Colin, who has been told from babyhood that he is sick and invalid. He has a nasty temper and the word "please" is not in his vocabulary. Mary discovers him, against Mrs. Medlock's wishes. Soon Colin, Mary, and Dickon all spend their time in the secret garden. Colin learns to walk and gets quite well, which Archibold Craven discovers upon his return to Misselthwaite.

Thus far, the similarities. But the movie is not perfectly accurate to the book.

Discrepancies:

In the book, Mary's parents die of cholera epidemic. In the movie, they die in an earthquake.
In the book, Mary is blonde and sallow. In the movie, she is redheaded with a somewhat robust appearance, though the makeup worked wonders.
In the book, Lord Archibold Craven's wife is Mary's father's sister. In the movie, his wife and her mother are twins.
In the book, Mary discovers the key to the locked garden almost by accident, because a dog coincidentally unburied it. In the movie, she finds it in her aunt's room and initially doesn't know what it is for.
In the book, Mary finds the door to the garden when the wind blows back the ivy covering it. In the movie, a friendly little robin shows her the way at her request.
In the book, Mrs. Medlock is not nearly so vicious, nor is she so protective of Colin. In the movie, there is much added drama from the antagonism of Mrs. Medlock.
In the book, Lord Archibold Craven is recalled by a letter from Martha and Dickon's mother Susan Souwerby. In the movie, the children work "magic," Lord Craven dreams of his wife, and he returns in a near panic to see his son.

Overall, the movie is true to the spirit of the book, captures the essence of the characters, and applies poetic license for better dramatic effect.

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