...though Solomon seems to assert that his films fundamentally consist of the physical images themselves, and not what those images might represent, he doesn’t abandon representational imagery completely...

| Jun 2, 2022

The result is an instant classic -- rich, dense, resonant, powerful.

Full Review | Aug 1, 2013

While drawing superb performances from her young leads, Holland has masterfully contrasted the garden -- a place where melodic robins seem almost conversant -- with the dread of Misselthwaite.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Aug 1, 2013

The movie's dark themes, unhurried pace and talkiness make it something of a gamble for many children. But older children -- especially those who have been asking specific questions about death -- may find some nourishment in this garden.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 1, 2013

This enchanted tale vividly shows how love heals and nurtures barren souls, makes them flourish like abundant Edens.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Aug 1, 2013

Rather than a fresh breeze, it's the stale air of gilded calculation, the uncomfortable feeling that things are excessively "just so," that overhangs much that is genuinely appealing about this film.

| Aug 1, 2013

It's as if the moviemakers were trying to cook up a New Age Yorkshire pudding, without meat drippings -- what's missing is Burnett's robust optimism and animistic energy.

Full Review | Aug 1, 2013

What magic there is comes from the odd, ritual behaviour of the children in a nice demonstration of the life-enhancing miracle of nature.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 1, 2013

Screenwriter Caroline Thompson and director Agnieszka Holland have turned Frances Hodgson Burnett's rather gothic 1911 children's book into an evocative, beautifully realized picture.

| Aug 1, 2013

The film is gorgeous to look at, from its period accouterments to its wanderings in explored space (the house is full of secret passageways) to its use of color.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Aug 1, 2013

Great book, great adaptation.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Dec 29, 2010

Executed to near perfection in all artistic departments, this superior adaptation of the perennial favorite novel will find its core public among girls , but should prove satisfying enough to a range of audiences.

Full Review | Feb 26, 2009

It is, first and foremost, a visual delight, a Victorian picture book come to life, from its brief prologue in India through its darkly enchanted recreation of Misselthwaite Manor on the Yorkshire moors.

| Mar 31, 2008

With well-judged performances played straight, and topical subtexts (Green consciousness, the dysfunctional family), this 'children's' film sets no age limit on its potential audience.

| Feb 9, 2006

Ms. Holland's film of The Secret Garden is elegantly expressive, a discreet and lovely rendering of the children's classic by Frances Hodgson Burnett.

Full Review | May 20, 2003

It is a work of beauty, poetry and deep mystery, and watching it is like entering for a time into a closed world where one's destiny may be discovered.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Jan 1, 2000

What a pleasure -- and what a challenge for the filmmakers -- to come up with a movie that exists primarily on ambience, character interplay, English accents and subtle class differences.

| Jan 1, 2000

Risking clich, we recommend that you stop and smell The Secret Garden's roses.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jan 1, 2000

The young actors are quite proficient and un-sappy too -- it's not their fault if they too often seem like chessmen being moved around on the director's board, composed into picturesque tableaux.

| Jan 1, 2000

The movie is earnest, heartfelt, and, for all its lavishness, rather plodding.

| Original Score: C+ | Mar 18, 1993