Glimmerubro It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

pointyfilippa The movie runs out of plot and jokes well before the end of a two-hour running time, long for a light comedy.

Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Raymond Baxter This is the third time over a few years that I have seen this film, it is always hard to follow an excellent film such as the original. Back to the Secret Garden does an excellent 'job' in my opinion. The storyline flows well.I have the original DVD of the original film, but for the moment have the sequel above as a TV recording. It is my intention, as with the Railway Children, and other films in our collection to have the original DVD 'set' to add to our growing collection of classic films.If you have not seen this sequel for fear of it not being as good as the original, then rest assured, if you liked the original, you'll like this version too.

vchimpanzee In 1946, after her husband becomes British ambassador to the United States, Lady Mary Craven must leave the Misslethwaite orphanage in England. She puts Martha in charge, although Martha doesn't feel quite ready. Part of Martha's duty will be to keep the key that opens the door to the secret garden Martha's late husband started. The garden is not in the best of shape, and Martha cannot see how Mary found the door when Mary opens it for her.When Mary leaves, she announces that Penelope will be able to go the United States to have an operation she can only get there, and that an orphan from the United States will be chosen to take Penelope's place while she is gone.Once in the United States, Mary visits an orphanage outside Washington, D.C. and finds several children interested in going to England. But Mary chooses Lizzie, a loner who loves taking care of the garden.After Martha is on her own, she looks and looks and can only see ivy covering the stone wall. So she has an opening made for a new door.Lizzie arrives at Misslethwaite and immediately learns to break the rules. She loves the secret garden and sneaks in, and she discovers that door Martha can't find from the outside. The animals in the garden love Lizzie and gather around her. Martha soon realizes Lizzie was meant to care for the garden and puts her in charge of the key.There is the usual boy-girl romance and love-triangle story one might expect here, and more breaking of rules, with appropriate consequences.The big question: will Lizzie be able to make the garden what it once was?I probably watched a movie called "The Secret Garden" but don't have any memory of it. Whether it was one of the great classics I can't say, but that's what I recall. This sequel wouldn't rank that high, but it is still very good. and if I can't remember the original, I have no problems with anything that might not be consistent with that movie.Joan Plowright gives her usual wonderful performance. There are many other very good performances here. Camilla Belle starts off slow but eventually shows talent matching that of the others.This is a movie kids can watch, but it has plenty of adult content (the good kind, meaning intelligent writing) which their parents can enjoy too. In fact, one doesn't even need to have kids to watch this.I am curious as to whether some of the expressions used by the kids were actually in people's vocabularies back in 1946. Nevertheless, today's kids will like hearing them.It's a good family film.

smfurgerson I love the positive aspects of this film. It was a pleasure to see that Hallmark had taken a chance at moving on from the original... and doing a wonderful job.This film gives both young and old the idea of continuity. The restoration of the garden by yet another child's faith is something to be respected.One could see some of the similarities of Lizzie to Dickon from the very first glimpse of the child... and like Mary before her, Lizzie had to 'steal' the garden before she was able to do good with it.Like the first one, it will remain on my favorite 'watch list' for a long time to come.

polexia This is a sequel though not one most dreadful. It was better than I expected, but I expected garbage, so that's not saying too much. The story is basically this: It's 1946 and Lady Mary goes to America to find a little girl to send back to Misselthwaite which has become a home for orphans, inexplicably. The little girl Lizzie conveniently loves working in gardens and sets about finding out why the garden is inexplicably dying. Mary doesn't return to America with Lizzie, inexplicably. We never find out where Archie Craven is or if he'd dead. And is Will Weatherstaff Ben's son or what? I'm an avid fan of The Secret Garden and I own 4 movie versions of it and have seen the Brodway show, not to mention I own a couple of copies of the novel (and the abysmal "sequel" by Susan Moody). That said, there are a few good things about this film: the lead actress Camilla Belle plays her part with sincerity and Florence Hoath (from Fairy Tale) does a great job as her friend at the "school". I quite enjoyed all of the (too few) scenes with a grown Mary Lennox (now Mary Craven, having married her first cousin, Colin. I doubt this would have happened in the early 1900's -- it was already 1911 when the children met. They must have been at least 16 or 17 before marrying which puts them at 1917 or so and during WW1. I'm just not buying it!) The main problem is with Martha Sowerby. She has utterly, completely and mind bogglingly inexplicably lost her Yorkshire accent! I despise how Joan Plowright plays the character (so much like she plays ALL of her characters). Martha could not have grown into that woman! It's like Mary Lennox only backwards. The film is set in 1946, Mary should be about 45. Martha looks at least 60. That means when Mary was 10, Martha was 25. Not buying that, either. The writer killed off Dickon in the war (isn't that convenient?). We see Colin only fleetingly. The show focuses much too much on Martha, who is so unlike the Martha we know from the books that we wonder if this impostor chopped her up and buried her in the garden and that's why it's dying! There's also the just-add-venom antagonist in the form of a Harry Potter clone with a superiority complex. And what's with the magical doors -- one minute it's there and the next it's not and there a new inexplicable "rule" that one needs the key to find the door or something. I might also mention the anachronisms. At one point Lizzie yells to a taunting meanie, "Fine! Be that way!" Did they say that in 1946? It's not a bad film for those who don't know and love The Secret Garden, but for really big fans, I think it's just another disappointment. I'm still waiting for a proper sequel in which Mary marries Dickon. Everyone knows she loves Dickon, not Colin!