Unflinchingly faithful version of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s classic children’s novel is a magical and gothic meditation on grief but central performances fail to compel

Ham & High: The Secret Garden, a Sky original tells the story of Mary Lennox, a 10-year-old girl sent to live with her uncle Archibald Craven, under the watchful eye of Mrs. Medlock with only the household maid, Martha for company. The film is set in 1940s England at Misselthwaite Manor, a remote country estate deep in the Yorkshire moors.The Secret Garden, a Sky original tells the story of Mary Lennox, a 10-year-old girl sent to live with her uncle Archibald Craven, under the watchful eye of Mrs. Medlock with only the household maid, Martha for company. The film is set in 1940s England at Misselthwaite Manor, a remote country estate deep in the Yorkshire moors. (Image: ©2020 Studiocanal SAS All Rights Reserved.)

I’ve never read Frances Hodgson Burnett’s classic children novel, but what immediately struck me about this version is that it is faithful; mercilessly, brutally, unflinchingly faithful.

Because if it wasn’t, why would they change it to this? I went in expecting a nice little children’s film and got a meditation on grief and loss, with an amputee soldier and a dog getting its paw caught in a mantrap.

In India just before the partition, a young English girl Mary (Egerickx) is struggling to survive in a deserted villa after her parents die of cholera.

After this Empire of the Sun opening, we are whisked back to post-war Yorkshire, where she is deposited at a big gloomy mansion with cold, distant uncle (Firth) and housekeeper (Walters.)

Your heart would break for Mary if she wasn’t spoilt and entitled and obnoxious.

This takes one back to an age when children’s films were often bracing, instructive narratives and there’s not a namby-pamby moment in The Secret Garden.

It’s magical without splurging lots of CGI gloop all over the place, and gothic without being Tim Burton. But the story and the performances fail to compel.

2/5 stars.

Directed by Marc Munden. Starring Dixie Egerickx, Julie Walters, Colin Firth, Edan Hayhurst, Isis Davis, Maeve Dermody. In cinemas or on Sky Cinema. Running time: 100 mins.