ctyankee1 The story begins with young Mary losing her mother and father suddenly in India. I don't know what they died from but they were rich and Mary is their only child and gets sent to live with another rich man in England. Mary is spoiled, bossy and wants her way all the time. In half of the movie she says things that make you dislike her. She does not like people and no one likes her.As the movie goes on she explains she does not like herself because she believed her mother only like pretty things and she was not pretty Mary is about 10-12 years old and very curious. The house she is moved to is like a castle. The man that owns it has a lump on his back and trouble walking. The man also has a son Colin about 14 who is like an invalid. He thinks he has a lump on his back and won't talk with anyone except the house help. His father does not visit him either.In the movie the important characters are Mary, Dickon and Colin. Dickon a boy about 14 is from a big family who work and go to church. Dickon provides Mary with friendship and courage she never knew. They find the secret garden and the story behind why it was closed by the owner.This movie is touching. It brings out the different weaknesses people have and believe they will never overcome. It brings friends to trust each other. It brings out lies about themselves that they believed for years which kept them from being humanly happy. Now with the help of Dickon who has insight and is very kind they grow as a group and bring love to people who have not experienced it like themselves and unite the father and his son Colin in a wonderful beautiful ending.The scenery is beautiful the birds in the trees and the animals that communicate with Dickon is so nice and the music in the course of the movie is loving.See the movie if you can. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=870KgkHdJLEIt is on Youtube and you can also download it if Firefox is your browser you can get addons to download.

ladymulti I LOVE this version of the movie. I was probably 4 or 5 when I first saw it. I can only assume that I caught it on television and recorded it after that....and SURE, it isn't like the book in MANY ways, but it is still a very good movie with great acting. If you take is as it is and not as you expect it to be (like the book), then you see just how great this movie is. How many movies now a days is exactly like the original story, anyway? I really dislike when someone discounts a movie as good or great just because it is nothing like the original story. This is why the movie makes state that it is BASED on the novel, not a direct rendition of such.I will forever love this movie and have come to wonder why I haven't bought the DVD yet.

Jim Director Alan Grint (who did a bang up job directing some of the episodes of the British Sherlock Holmes series starring Jeremy Brett) has successfully translated an F H Burnett book to the small screen. This Hallmark Hall of Fame version introduces us to a grown Mary Lennox who in flashback, relives her childhood experience in coming to the rural manor of her guardian.The real story has no reference to grown Mary or her romantic connection to Colin Craven. This is probably due to the fact that in the novel, Burnett makes it clear that Mary and Colin are actually cousins. This film version has erased that from the story, which would not be required if the unnecessary adult portions of the story had been left out.Young Gennie James is excellent as (at first) ill tempered and selfish Mary Lennox. She resents her new situation (orphan living in someone else's house) and strains the patience of her caretaker (Whitlaw). When she discovers there is a secret garden, she is determined to find it, and when, upon finally meeting her guardian Mr. Craven, she steers him into granting her permission to make a garden anywhere she chooses. Of course she chooses the walled in garden.When she finally tames Colin enough to tell him of the garden and her new friend Dickon, and his mysterious way with animals, the willful Colin is determined to see these wonders for himself and demands that the servants take him outside in his wheel chair and allow Mary to escort him with Dickon to push him. The servants balk, but give in to their young master's whim. This, of course, proves to be the beginning of the sickly Colin's road to recovery.Young Oliver as Dickon is quite good, though he has little to say. Steele does a fine job of playing the demanding, insufferable crippled boy. Horndern is just right as the crusty but faithful Gardener and Whitlaw is good as always. All in all, a charming and satisfying, if slightly altered, version of the excessivley wordy classic novel. Incidentally, for you fans of Harry Potter, NO, director Alan Grint is not the father of Rupert Grint.

Nancy1428 Many may disagree with me, but this is a wonderful movie. The young actors playing Colin, Mary and Dickon are likable and convincing. The scenery is beautiful; one can tell most of this movie was shot outside and not on a sound stage. This particular interpretation is haunting; and initially it is dreary. Mary is a sad little girl at the beginning of the movie (obviously, since she lost both of her parents and is transported from sunny India to dreary Northern England). The outside scenes of Mistlethwaite Manor (possibly even the inside, I don't remember) were filmed at an old mansion that was reputedly haunted. Pastoral scenes of real gardens and forests permeate most of this film, and it is really a visual delight. Haunting classical music (mostly played on solo piano) binds the aesthetic aspects of this film together. I agree with this interpretation because there is so much sadness in this story; Mary lost both of her parents, Colin's mother died, his father is depressed. Most people are familiar with the plot, so I won't give it here; but the ending may not please literary purists. Mary, as an adult comes back to Mistlethwait Manor to visit the garden. She is a medic in the war (I believe World War I). She runs into the old gardener (his name escapes me at the moment). They talk about Dickon, who died in the war in a forest and how he would have wanted it that way. Colin appears, (who was also a soldier), who is on leave because he was shot in the leg. We learn at this point that he and Mary kept in touch by writing letters. Colin proposes to Mary, she says yes; and the final scene is the three of them walking into the garden. I personally like this ending, because although it isn't what the author intended, it satisfies questions about the fate of these beloved characters.