"The Secret Garden" by Marc Munden (2020)

This turned out a beautiful surprise, just what I needed. 

Its magic is only partly due to classic children's novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett (curiously, during her lifetime it was by far eclipsed by another of her novels, "Little Lord Fauntleroy") and also due to the very capable talents of director Marc Munden and producer David Heyman (Harry Potter film series) but where it works 90% is in a beautiful outdoors location so everybody who was locked inside during Corona epidemics can finally feel the breeze and smell the flowers in a beautiful and magical secret garden. Its truly a coincidence that I went to see it, because my last cinema visit was a traumatising and heavy "La Madre" where I kind of lost appetite to watch the movies at all but since I have cinema membership, it became almost pointless why am I paying this membership with unlimited visits to cinema and not even using it, so today I forced myself to go and randomly selected this.

The story is familiar and re-told many times in different media, but it seems there is something timeless about it, so different generations grow to love "The Secret Garden" for various reasons. After both of her parents passed away, little orphan Mary is sent away to some distant relative who lives in a huge manor in England - here she discovers a secret garden that has a healing properties and it changes lives for everybody involved. This latest 2020 version uses a lot of special effects and computer animation that previous generations were not able to do - nowadays it became almost a standard routine but once upon a time people had to depend on their own creativity. There is a tiny, perceptive Disney atmosphere that balances at the edge of sacharrine (little birdies flying above Mary's head, but ultimately not really having other role in the movie) and occasionally it felt as combination of "Pan's Labyrinth" and "Rebecca" but this is now grown up me, criticising a children's movie. The real audience - kids - would not know about about this anyway.

I have approached "The Secret Garden" the way I mostly love to approach most of my movies, like a Tabula Rasa without any previous knowledge about it. In fact, I don't even remember have I ever read the novel? It could be one of the things that were never even translated in my country - otherwise I would have read it for sure. If you are raised in the Eastern Block, your literary diet depended on Eastern European authors and occasional politically correct classic. And it was a extremely hot afternoon so I escaped into cinema for some cool air - enjoyed the movie very much, it was just what a needed as escapism from the reality and even though some details were twisted and changed, I still found it all very pretty and magical. It might be a tiny bit too serious for the kids really, because it deals with grief after parents death and some very heavy subjects, but than again, its not for toddlers, I would say its for a young adults perhaps, kind of Harry Potter audiences.