The Secret Garden (2020)
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The Secret Garden Movie Review
The Secret Garden is a 2020 family fantasy film directed by Marc Munden and starring Dixie Egerickx. It’s a film that has its magical ingredients that didn’t quite coalesce into a great whole.
The movie is based on the classic book of the same name. I haven’t read it, and I have not seen the previous big screen adaptations of it, so I cannot judge this movie in that comparisons area. Individually speaking, the plot is quite good. I particularly adored the fantastical elements with the garden itself looking absolutely amazing. The plants, the swamp, the richness of colors to it… It looked so comfortable and enchanting that I wanted many more scenes in it.
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As a drama, the film works at a lesser capacity. There is strong family drama to be had here, but overall I was much more interested in the protagonist’s story than in the boys’ storyline. Their group dynamic is wonderful, but as individuals, both boys suffered weak characterization in my opinion, though the performances are solid.
The movie employs two British veterans in the adult roles, Colin Firth and Julie Walters. Both did a good job as you would expect from them, but I was enamored the most with the central performance from Dixie Egerickx. She is excellent and the role is superb, very well written and complex. She’s the star of the movie, that’s for sure.
As for the movie’s technical aspects, they are splendid. Again, the titular garden looked super cool and inviting, and it’s a shame that the movie continually refused to let us spend more time in it. The direction is only okay while the film’s pacing is a total mess.
The first half of the movie is so good and intriguing that the rest really suffered for being disappointingly anti-climactic. Yes, The Secret Garden only occasionally reached the magical transporting qualities of the best fantasy works with the drama elements overtaking the plot way too much for my liking, though I have to commend it for being emotionally involving and even quite mature in some scenarios.
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The Secret Garden benefits from a stellar, intriguing first half, but the second half was a letdown. The magic is only brought to the audience in a couple of great scenes, but overall the movie rarely reached greatness. The central performance and character are great and so are the wonderfully charming scenes in the titular garden, but the drama elements were significantly less interesting.
