The Secret Garden tells the story of prickly 10 year old orphan Mary Lennox (Dixie Egerickx), sent from India to to England to live with prickly old Uncle Colin Firth in his country house, with grounds so large you can actually lose a garden in it.
I haven’t read Frances Hodgson Burnett’s book, though it’s been out for 110 years so I’m not going to complain about spoilers (not until I’ve calmed down about someone tweeting that Beth died in Little Women anyway).
I’m a terrible gardener, so I was agog at the flowers, though beyond that this trailer does seem to tell the whole story in only two minutes – unless there’s a mad twist where Colin Firth’s cruel yet redeemable post-war dad/uncle marries Bridget Jones.
This Secret Garden has been brought forward to a new time period – it’s 1947, in the aftermath of WW2 and on the eve of Partition in India.
It is gorgeous and lush, and it must be magical because the flowers didn’t wilt as I watched it.
Here’s the enjoyably short IMDB synopsis:
An orphaned girl discovers a magical garden hidden at her strict uncle’s estate.
And here’s the trailer, as the synopsis I was sent – which is below – is so long you might actually get lost:
The synopsis to end all synopses:
When Mary’s parents die suddenly, she is sent back to England to live with her uncle, Archibald Craven (Colin Firth) at Misselthwaite Manor, a remote country estate deep in the Yorkshire moors, under the watchful eye of Mrs. Medlock (Julie Walters) and with only the household maid, Martha (Isis Davis) for company.
Mary begins to uncover many family secrets, particularly after chancing upon her sickly cousin Colin, who has been shut away in a wing of the house, and through her discovery of a wondrous garden, locked away and lost within the grounds of Misselthwaite.
While searching for Hector, a stray dog that led Mary to the garden walls, she befriends local boy Dickon (Amir Wilson) who, through the garden’s restorative powers, helps her to fix Hector’s injured leg.
Once brought together, these three damaged, slightly misfit children heal each other as they delve deeper into the mysteries of the garden – a magical place of adventure that will change their lives forever.
Hello? Are you still there? Good.
BAFTA-winning Marc Munden (National Treasure, Utopia) directs this new adaptation, from a screenplay by multiple award-winning Jack Thorne (Harry Potter and The Cursed Child).
The Secret Garden is out in the UK on 10 April (Good Friday) and in the US on 17 April.
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