- Director: Alfonso Cuarón
- AMG Rating:
- Genre: Drama
- Movie Type: Childhood Drama
- Themes: Riches To Rags, Class Differences, Fantasy Life
- Main Cast: Eleanor Bron, Liam Cunningham, Liesel Matthews, Rusty Schwimmer, Arthur Malet
- Release Year: 1995
- Country: US
- Run Time: 97 minutes
- MPAA Rating: G
Plot
A privileged, free-spirited young girl tries to adapt to life in a strict boarding school in this charming, critically acclaimed children's fantasy. Adapting a novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett, also the author of The Secret Garden, the film shifts the story's setting to World War I. 10 year-old Sara Crewe (Liesel Matthews) has been left in a respected New York City boarding school while her British father heads overseas to fight. Filled with wild stories and a playful attitude, the unconventional Sara becomes popular amongst her classmates but quickly comes into conflict with the harsh headmistress, Miss Minchin (Eleanor Bron), who attempts to quash the child's individuality. The young girl's situation takes a serious turn for the worse when she unexpectedly receives word of her father's death, and, suddenly impoverished, is forced into life as a servant. Treated as a lesser class of person by her former companions, Sara instead befriends her fellow servants and turns to the power of imagination in order to maintain hope for the future. In addition to changing the story's setting, screenwriters Richard LaGravenese and Elizabeth Chandler add a layer of Indian mythology to the tale, allowing director Alfonso Cuaron the chance to punctuate the riches-to-rags fable with a series of lush, imaginative fantasy sequences. Though A Little Princess had difficulty attracting audiences during its initial run, its visual splendor and touching storytelling were praised by many critics, several of whom proclaimed the film one of the best family-oriented productions of its time. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie GuideReview
Alfonso Cuaron's adaptation of the Frances Hodgson Burnett classic, the second film version in the last decade, is a brilliantly stylized reimagining of the well-known children's story. Sarah Crewe (Liesel Matthews) is the ten-year-old daughter of a wealthy businessman who places her in a New York boarding school during WWI, after he's called to fight in India. The girl quickly makes a place for herself in this upscale world through her gift for storytelling, but trouble lurks just around the corner. Cuaron has chosen to lessen the realism and harshness of the story, using elaborately designed sets to create an otherworldly atmosphere, while remaining faithful to its overall meaning. Liesel Matthews makes a plucky and intelligent heroine, and comedy veteran Eleanor Bron is suitably chilling as the school's snobbish headmistress. While writers Richard LaGravenese and Elizabeth Chandler have rendered the characters with considerable subtlety, there's nothing here that couldn't be understood by a child.~ Michael Costello, All Movie Guide
Cast
- Eleanor Bron - Miss Minchin
- Liam Cunningham - Captain Crewe/Prince Rama
Liesel Matthews - Sara CreweRusty Schwimmer - Amelia Minchin- Arthur Malet - Charles Randolph
