For stories such as Little Women, Emma or Alice in Wonderland, there is a certain expectation among audiences for modern retellings with the arrival of each new generation. They are classics after all, and their ability to be plopped into new contexts and remain universal speaks to their lasting appeal as beloved literature. A release such as Marc Munden’s The Secret Garden should show off why it was time for Hollywood to dust the title off the shelf again and kindle the fire for the source material. The 2020 version of The Secret Garden, however, is a perfectly adequate retelling of the famed children’s story, but it’s also not compelling enough for one to appreciate it more than before.
