The Secret Garden

The Secret Garden is an enchanting movie based on the book by Frances Hodgson Burnett, who also wrote “A Little Princess”. It tells the story of Mary Lennox, an Indian girl of ten years old, who lost her parents during an earthquake. She didn’t feel sad, however, because her parents never talked to her. Her mother was always too busy with parties and her father, who was a military, only cared about his career. They only thought about themselves, while Mary was left in the care of her ayah. This lack of affection made Mary a spoiled and angry girl, without any kind of good manners. Even furious as she was, she never cried about it. 

After the accident, she was sent to England where her uncle, Mr. Archibald Craven lived. Mrs. Medlock, the housekeeper (played by Professor McGonnagal! Maggie Smith) is sent to take her to the Miselthwaite Manor, where she discovers that her aunt, who was twin to her mother, had died 10 years before. That’s why her uncle was always very depressed and spent long periods away from home.

The manor was far from being a place for children, with its hundreds of locked rooms, but anyway, Mary would have to find something to do there. In the first morning, she wakes up and finds a way out of her bedroom, which leads to an abandoned part of the house, and she discovers the room of her late aunt. For her surprise, it had the same furniture as her mother’s bedroom, but in this one she found a really big key. Not wanting to cause any trouble, she put it on the same place and left the room, but she was found by Mrs. Medlock, who yelled at her and dragged her back to her bedroom.

Then she met Martha, a young housemaid who would take care of her, and after a little hostility, by Mary, the good nature of Martha ends attracting Mary’s friendship.

When walking through the gardens near the castle, Mary meets Ben Weatherstaff, the gardener, and his little robin, that becomes her first friend. The robin shows Mary the door to a secret garden and she takes the key she found in the abandoned room to open it. There is a huge mystery about this garden in particular, but it becomes Mary’s little secret world.

Then she meets Dickon, Martha’s brother, a boy who loves the animals and “talks” to them. They become friends as well. And Mary eventually shows him the garden, under the promise he wouldn’t tell about it to anybody.

Inside the castle, she constantly hears cries echoing, but everytime she asks about it, people give just a vague explanation. One night she discovered from where it really came from. Walking through the house at night, she discovered a boy in a room behind a tapestry, Colin Craven, her cousin. Until that moment she had no idea she had a cousin. He was born premature, because his mother died when she was pregnant. Everybody thought he was going to die, as well. He passed all his life in a bed, locked in his room, he never learned how to walk and he had never seen the sunlight, because of his weakness.

But Mary discovered he wasn’t sick, and they managed to go to the secret garden, which was being cared by her and Dickon. There, Colin learned how to walk, as if there were some kind of magic working on the garden. Colin wanted to surprise his father, letting him be the first to know he finally could walk, but Mr. Craven was travelling. So, they gathered in the garden to ask to this magic to work on Colin’s father. And it worked!

What I love most about this movie is that it really works its magic on who watches it. It is fascinating how it brings us our kindest childhood memoirs! One of my favorite parts of the film is when the flowers are growing in the garden. And the soundtrack is perfect! It completely involves you and makes you dream on along the movie. It’s splendid! I know it’s a children’s story, but it doesn’t mean adults wouldn’t fall prey to it. It is lovely, unique and magical.