After her father's enlisting in the army, the thing that leads him to send her in a special school in England, where she struggles against the headmistress who hates her and wants to make her obey her orders without any protest, Sara Crewe, a young beautiful and intelligent girl, struggles upon receiving the news of her father's death.
Soppy and girlish in the extreme, this should keep even the tiniest viewer rapt, while all too many adults may fall victim to an inexplicable bout of eye-watering long before the closing credits.
Cuaron finds the perfect style for this trusted formula; what could have been routine kids' stuff flourishes with his sure feeling for space, light and colour.
A truly captivating children's film that never got its due in the theaters.
TV Guide
May 27, 2011
This new version of Frances Hodgson Burnett's children's classic boasts first-rate production values and a political sensitivity befitting the '90s, but it doesn't quite capture the magic of the 1939 Shirley Temple vehicle.
