Reviews

I can hear her bones rattling all the way from West Yorkshire, England to Texas where I am. It's definitely her, and who can blame her? One scarcely recognizes the people, situations, or dialog in this dreadful film.

Oh, it's pretty - but that's it. The books is splendid, beautiful, unforgettable... and that's the problem. If I had forgotten it, I would have loved this film! But I remember it.

I've never understood why filmmakers mess with classics. The book has been loved by countless generations for a REASON. It's perfect. This film has a great location, wonderful costumes, and likable actors (ever since the Narnia films, I LOVE Georgie Henley)... but it's NOT a true representation of the book.

Dreadful - ANY of the other productions is better.

I absolutely despise this film. I wanted to love it - I really wanted to. But man, oh man - they were SO off with Sara. And the father living was pretty cheesy. That's straight out of the Shirley Temple film.

I highly recommend THE BOOK. It is amazing. In the book, Sara is honorable and decent and she does the right thing... BECAUSE IT IS RIGHT. She doesn't have a spiteful bone in her body.

In the film, she is mean-spirited and spiteful. She does little things to get back at Miss Minchin. In the book, Sara is above such things. She DOES stand up to Miss Minchin. She tells the truth and is not cowed by her. But she does not do the stupid, spiteful things that the Sara in the film does.

It's really rather unsettling to me that so many here say they loved the book and they love the movie. I can't help but wonder... did we read the same book? The whole point of the book was personal responsibility, behaving with honor and integrity, ALWAYS telling the truth and facing adversity with calm and integrity.

Sara has a happy ending in the book - not the ridiculous survival of her father, but the joining with his partner who has been searching for her. In the book, she is taken in by this new father figure who loves and cares for her and Becky. And Miss Minchin is NOT a chimney sweep - that part of the film really was stupid.

To see all this praise for this wretched film is disturbing to me. We are praising a film that glorifies petty, spiteful behavior with a few tips of the hat to kindness? Sara in the book was kind to the bone and full of integrity. I don't even recognize her in the film... she's not in it.

Good thing Mrs. Burnett isn't alive to see this horrid thing. It's ghastly and undeserving to bear the title of her book.

I love the story, but barely recognized it under the laborious plot derivations and bad dialogue. What were they thinking? These poor actors did a fine job with the terrible material that they had. A nine year old would do a better writing job. I was saddled with this horrid thing when I purchased a DVD collection of period pieces. Why on earth did Percy never get into disguise? That was a significant part of setting up the story. They put him in some stupid kind of Zorro face mask. WHAT?!?! I was sorely disappointed after my delight at anticipating a new version of this lovely story. The characters engaged in behaviors that were, frankly, beneath them. Percy's character was written so poorly - he is supposed to come across as a consistently ridiculous character to everyone, except when he is functioning as the Pimpernel. This is an essential element of his disguise! They completely missed the mark here. Also, the marriage between Percy and Marguerite is so poorly written. You don't have a clue about their animosity for each other. You just see that they seem to despise each other from the get go and there is no HINT whatsoever as to what brought them together in marriage in the first place. A well-written Pimpernel story will show you the prior evolution of the marriage through dialogue. These actors had no opportunity to tell you about their relationship - you are left thinking they hated each other from "I Do." Frankly, "The Matrix" had a better love story!" Don't waste a minute on this - watch any other version.