Alice in Wonderland - Movie

My partner and I spent an afternoon in a jam packed cinema this weekend watching the new Alice In Wonderland movie. I have to firstly confess that I don't think I have actually read the books all the way through - I am certainly familiar with the stories but as for having sat down and read the book - that is something I am going to have to go back and do now!

The movie was certainly an adventure but I can't say that it met all of my expectations - not that this is necessarily a bad thing. I was thinking the movie's PG rating would mean it was a bit of a let down content wise but I actually think a lot of the movie would have been lost on younger children and thinking of the primary school aged children in my life my main thoughts were that they would have been bored through a lot of it. We saw the movie in all of it's 3D glory (this is only the second feature film I have seen in this way - the first being Avatar) and I do think this format adds some magic to the experience (if also an awful headache from wearing those ghastly glasses!).

The young Australian actress playing Alice, Mia Wasikowska, was divine - I thought she brought the right combination of innocence, confusion and fiestyness to the role and I also thought she helped to create a real feminist message to the role, and the movie in a way. Johnny Depp was, as expected, clever and wacky as The Hatter and he has made me want to throw a tea party in the not too distant future! The costuming (always one of the highlights to a movie for me) was gorgeous and innovative. All in all a satisfying movie experience - now to move on to the book.

The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett

I actually finished The Secret Garden at the beginning of January but for some reason I have been holding off on doing my review - partly because I really wanted to love this book - but I just didn't. After reading Hodgson Burnett's adult fiction The Making Of A Marchioness last year and absolutely loving it I expected the jump to The Secret Garden would be an easy one. I gave a beautiful hard covered, illustrated edition of the book to my god daughter last year for her 4th Birthday and her father told me he had started reading it to her one night and had stopped because he felt the topic areas were a little full on for a 4 year old. Now she just looks at the pictures until she gets a little older! I can see his point - the grief and loss described at the beginning of the book is quite confronting. At the time that the book was written death and illness would have been quite common place for children to see and hear about - but in our modern society children are often shielded from this aspect of life.

I have to say that I do love my edition of the book - beautiful to look at and hold in your hands and there is a wonderful and enlightening introduction by Alice Sebold which I read last.

I have gone over and over why this book didn't work for me. I have tried to place it in the context in which it was written and to some extent that has helped - but this book is still loved and raved about today by so many. I can certainly connect with the themes of hope and growth and I can appreciate the messages that the author was conveying through the story but I just didn't connect with the characters at all - and (I feel a little awful to admit this) I really did not like Mary at all!

I think I have to make my peace with the fact that this wasn't the book for me and continue on reading Hodgson Burnett's adult fiction which I am definitely in love with.