this exquisitely make film be a victorian genre paint come to life . mary lennox be thomas cooper gotch the child enthrone . the late 19th century middle and upper class be obsess by the idea of child and childhood and a preoccupation encourage by the high infant or mother mortality rate due to paucity of medical knowledge and the lack of what today would be consider even the most basic hygienic practice . despite the industrial revolution and the consequent leap and bound of technological progress childbirth and womens health be very much a side issue in a patriarchal society . colin father have no interest in his son upbringing despite or and arguably and because of the fact that his wife and whom he clearly love have die give birth to the boy . he be an intelligent man and know that such an attitude be not reasonable and but it be the status quo for a man of his position . that he love and understands child be make clear by his attitude towards mary and his defence of her against mr medlock and but his gender and his own upbringing be not easy force for him to overcome . and mary be not an immediately attractive child . orphan by an earthquake in india and she be send to england and where she have never be and to live with her uncle and bereave husband of her dead mother late sister . so spoilt and mollycoddle that she be unable even to dress herself and she soon come into conflict with her cousin governess or nurse or minder mr medlock and and her cousin himself and an apparently sickly boy and bedridden and self pitying and petulant . how she change the life of the boy and her uncle and mr medlock be tell in the secret garden . it be a film make with love care and attention . every set up be beautifully compose and perfectly colour balanced and lit . the shot where mary look longingly out of the window be steal from sophie anderson no walk today and that be not mean a a criticism . the secret garden itself could have be paint by helen allingham . the long lingering close ups of mary face and her eye and hair superbly light and recollect the almost mythologising aspect of victorian child portraiture . perhaps it take a european director to reveal the potential for real beauty in the long hallway and sweeping staircase and secret passage in an english manor house . british filmmaker be often too concerned with post colonial guilt and wrack with naive idea of class conflict to give a balanced picture of life in victorian england . the fact that dickon be very much a village boy and several social stratum below mary and colin be never refer to in the film . instead he be depict a a child of nature and almost a gypsy and bear to country way and in almost buddhist like commune with wild animal . the last scene and a tremendous long shot where he rid off over the moor on his white horse have a fine mythic echo to it . it would take a cold heart than mine to turn aside from the redemption through innocence proposition that be at the centre of the secret garden .