BACK TO THE SECRET GARDEN (2001) ** It's a different kind of children's movie, for aesthetically sensitive children and ones registering social sophistication. The locations are all very pretty, and the adults all very comfortable and effective in their proper place. If anything, there's even less plot than in the original. .and no action to speak of, heavens no. Pairing Joan Plowright and Cherie Lunghi as the poles of proper British society (lower and upper, of course) may well have been a stroke of genius, but if so one in no small portion vitiated by the reality that Lunghi appears on the screen far from often or long enough. Hers is that natural elegance that sets apart the British aristocratic class (closs). Not that they're any better by percentage than dotcom millionaires or homeless rhythm guitarists, just that they do occasionally (as Ms Lunghi, here) appear to so naturally fall into such unnaturally elegant behaviour. A testament to some human virtue, surely, and one bearing no outward unpleasantness. Too often the results are abhorrent, which is of course also true of mountain climbers and escape artists, and in any event I digress. Camilla Belle is a winning actress but may not have been perfectly cast as an orphan from Brooklyn.
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