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The Secret Garden receives varying reviews: ‘Visual excess is harmful’ | NOW

Classic The Secret Garden has been re-filmed. The new version features modern visual effects and a supporting role for Colin Firth. The Dutch film critics are divided on the fantasy film about two lonely children who discover a secret place. View an overview of the reviews below.

De Volkskrant – 2 stars

“Where the best and most famous film adaptations stand out in their own way (the 1949 black and white film with the garden scenes in color and the 1993 version in which the mystical seamlessly merges with human drama), this one degenerates The Secret Garden in bloodless drama with a careless design full of pompous computer effects. As if a new, stand-alone, extremely sparse remake is starting in the garden. A mystically intended place that is so emphatically linked to the mood of the characters deserves – on all fronts – more than what it gets here. “

Read the full review here

The Telegraph – 3 stars

“While Hodgson Burnett (Frances Eliza Hodgson Burnett, author of the book of the same name, ed.) Attributed magical powers to nature, director Marc Munden turns the secret garden into a theme park full of digital effects. This visual excess damages the story somewhat, because so too little is left to the imagination. Sometimes less is just more. Colin Firth shows that convincingly. “

Faithful – 2 stars

“It’s a small problem that the entire introduction is somewhat rushed through, because you can sense exactly where the film wants to go: the moment Mary will enter the secret garden.”

“A few amazed facial expressions from the children (about the beautiful visual effects) should be enough to show how special the garden is to them.”

“But a paradise is of course not a paradise for people because of the beautiful flora, even if you can suddenly walk again through the rippling water. It becomes a paradise because you experience it together. Otherwise it is just a skybox.”

Read the full review here

NRC – 4 stars

“This one The Secret Garden is almost augmented reality, the digital version of a mushroom trip: the flowers sprout in luminous colors before your eyes, with one gust of wind the seasons pass. The film thus makes visible how healing nature works on these children. “

Read the full review here

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