The Secret Garden

Annie and I decided to watch "The Secret Garden" today. It was one of our favorite films growing up, and I recently found out that Francis Ford Coppola was one of the executive producers for the film, which was a fun fact, realizing that one of my favorite directors was involved with one of my favorite films as a child. I am not sure what it is about "The Secret Garden" that is so appealing to me. It has an aura of mystery and tragedy that is unapologetically woven into the tale. I remember it being the first film I watched that made me cry. I think I was about five or six years old at the time.

The movie, based upon the book by Francis Hodgson Burnett, reflects the lonely lives of abandonment led by two ten year old children living in a gloomy old mansion in the English countryside. One child is abandoned by her parents through their deaths, the other, bedridden and sickly, is rejected by his deeply distressed and
heartbroken father. The story has something very tangible and earnest about it. It is a story of healing through nature, but it takes real loss and tragedy and turns haunted memories into joyful ones. It also not only heals the children, but it also heals the adults in their lives.

The movie is filmed with a lot of simplicity: it is a story originally meant for children, so there aren't any "big" scenes to film. But the cinematography, combined with the truly gorgeous score makes the film very moving. There are also so many subtleties in the film that I noticed watching it this time around that I never noticed before. Fun fact: Elijah Wood and Kirsten Dunst were both turned down for the roles of the two children in favor of two unknowns, (Heydon Prowse and Kate Maberly) which always makes me happy.