The Secret Garden (Maggie Smith)

 The Secret Garden (Maggie Smith) 1993

• Director: Agnieszka Holland
• Seen by this director: The Wire, Copying Beethoven,
• Based on the novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett
• Cast: Kate Maberly, Maggie Smith, Haydon Prowse, Andrew Knott, Laura Crossley, John Lynch
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Kate Maberly – Finding Neverland, Daniel Deronda
• Maggie Smith – Downton Abbey, Harry Potter, The Lady in the Van, Hotel Marigold 1&2, My Old Lady, Quartet, From Time to Time, Becoming Jane, Keeping Mum, Ladies in Lavender, Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, Gosford Park, David Copperfield, Tea with Mussolini, The First Wives Club, Richard III, The Sister Act 1&2, A Room with a View, The Quartet, Oh What a Lovely War, Love and Pain and the Whole Damned Thing, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
• John Lynch – The Fall, Merlin, Sliding Doors, In the Name of the Father
• Why?  Maggie Smith
• Seen: 17 March 2022 

New try. For my summary of the story see my review of the Julie Walters version.

This one is darker in the beginning but then spring comes, the magic of nature is marvelled at, and it becomes too sweet.

Maybe I’m just too old and curmudgeonly for this happy somewhat formulaic kids’ story.

Maggie Smith lifts it of course.  

3 * of 5