The Secret Garden Review & Giveaway

 

When Mary Lennox's parents suddenly die, she is sent to live with her uncle, Archibald Craven, on his remote country estate deep in the Yorkshire moors. While exploring, she discovers a hidden magical garden. 

MY REVIEW

Imagination, the ability of the mind to be creative or resourceful. That's exactly what you get when you enter the world of The Secret Garden. I was very excited when I got the opportunity to watch this with my family recently. Based off the novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett, it's a remake from the 1993 movie that I remember watching as a kid.

Mary is a young girl who's sent to live with her Uncle Archibald Craven in England after her parents died. Her uncle is the husband of her mother's deceased sister. When she gets to her new home she's expecting to be treated like royalty, having servants do as she says, but gets a rude awakening that she is no longer the one in charge and there are rules to follow, one being to stay out of her uncles way unless he asks to see her. She's shown her room by the housekeeper, Mrs. Medlock, and her first night in her new home, she hears screams and noises that she's not use to. When she is awaken she meets Martha, a worker in the home that is helping get Mary set for the day.

As she explores the property of her new home, she meets a dog and names it Gemima. One day while walking around the property and playing with her new friend, we see that Gemima gets stuck in a trap and hurts its paw. Mary helps Gemima out of the trap and as Gemima tries to head back home, Mary follows, climbing over a wall and finding The Secret Garden. I'ts a beautiful place that her aunt use to spend time in. 

Along the way she meets Martha's brother, Dickon, and the two become friends exploring the garden together. Dickon tells Mary that Gemima is a boy dog and also helps with the dog's hurt paw. They leave the dog in the secret garden for the day to see if she will better the next day.

One night she decides to follow the screams and noises she hears at night and is suprised to find a young boy in a room, named Colin. He is her cousin. She learns that he can't walk and the two talk about their mothers and about how Colin's dad has become a bit lost since the death of his wife and they blame the house for both her death and for Colin being in the condition that he's in.

Throughout the movie we see flashbacks of Mary's parents and their relationship with her. It seems as though Mary's mom was not well and soon we find out that she was depressed, grieving the loss of her sister, as they were close and best friends. 

When Mary and Dickon head back to the secret garden, they see that the dog is feeling a lot better and Mary has a plan to bring her cousin Colin to the garden as well. There the three decide to rename Gemima after Dickon's dad and name him, Hector. The three kids share stories and when talking about his mother, Colin is upset and wants to go home. 

We see Mary try to help her cousin use his imagination throughout the movie and have him talk about his mother, reliving both their mother's memories of their time together in the garden, even when he doesn't want to. She finds the room where all her late aunt's clothes, jewlery, pictures and letters are and brings Colin in there, but it's too much for him and he gets upset.

On the way back from the garden one day Mrs. Medlock shows her one of her aunts pearl necklaces and she is caught and gets in trouble for going into that room. She tells her she will be going to boarding school the next day and that night Mary runs away to the garden where Dickon and Colin find her and try to convince her that she can't just hideout in the garden forever when they notice smoke coming from the house. Running towards the house she runs in to get her uncle and she tells him that Colin is safe in the secret garden. After exiting the house the two, along with Dickon and Mrs. Medlock head to the secret garden where Colin is.

This was such an amazing movie that just warmed my heart, just as it did when I saw the 1993 version of the movie. I remember imagining that I had a secret garden to go to when I wanted to to escape the world and to be honest, I wish I had a secret garden to go to with the way the last few months have been. Since I don't I've made our backyard a place to go and enjoy the sun and relax. I love spending time outside, listening to some good music or reading a nice book. 

You can now enjoy The Secret Garden at home on digital and on-demand as it was released, Friday, August 7th and I'm excited to share that we've teamed up with Elevation Pictures to offer one of our readers (Canada only) a chance to win a digital Itunes/Apple TV copy of the film to enjoy. To enter all you need to do is comment what's been your secret garden these last few months with us all living in a worldwide pandemic.

Disclosure: All opinions are my own. I received the above mentioned title on digital at no cost for the purpose of this review. No other compensation was received.

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