"A Little Princess" - 1995

This is one of my favourite movies of all time.

It's the story of a young girl named Sara who has lived in beautiful India all her life, living in luxury with servants, friends, and a father who loves her very much - but is ripped from her home to attend a boarding school for girls in New York (run by the pretentious Miss Minchin) while her father goes off to fight in the ghastly trenches of World War I.  Because she has lived separate from "normal" girls of her age, she finds the culture shock upsetting and difficult to comply with.  Her father demands that the boarding school treat her like a princess and says his goodbyes.  A short while later, Sara is told that her father has died, leaving her penniless.  Suddenly, she is forced to work as a servant to the boarding school, and things go from bad to worse to hell until, finally, Sara receives the best surprise of her life.

First of all, I know that this adaptation wasn't incredibly true to the novel.  But I'm not one to judge the quality of a movie based on how well it depicted the book.  A movie is separate from its book and should be reviewed for what it is.

My favourite thing about this movie is the juxtaposition of gorgeous Indian culture with the harsher, colder Victorian style of America during this era.  This is accomplished in several different ways.

For one, the music in this movie is all-around amazing.  In the very beginning, you're hit with this gorgeous sitar music (some people might have thought it was cheesy, playing on the stereotypes of India like that, but I say otherwise.  It's beautiful music, so enjoy it and shut up!).  This opening theme recurs many times throughout the film, as Sara reminisces and connects things in her new life to things from her past.  The tune is warm, exotic, and uplifting, just like its name - "Kindle My Heart."  On the other hand, when the mood is supposed to seem empty, hopeless, and stern, a staunchly refined choir is heard.  English poet William Blake's poem "The Tyger" is, ironically, full of rainforest imagery and sung to fit the Victorian ideals of music instead.

Colour is also used to represent the two different worlds.  Sara's homeland is represented by oranges, yellows, and reds - warm colours - corresponding to both the mood, temperature, and wildness of untamed India.  New York is portrayed as a very green and grey atmosphere.  The skies are either overcast or raining, not sunny like Sara's memories of India.  Miss Minchin dresses in stately, grey clothes.  The girls of the school dress in green uniforms for school and green with white frocks for play, always with green hair ribbons.  The school's interior and exterior are also overwhelmingly green - almost as if a failed attempt had been made at bringing nature into the ugly and industrial city.  It only ends up feeling gloomy.  The warm colours only appear when hints of Sara's life in India show up; the clothes of Ram Dass, the Indian man assisting the elderly neighbor of Miss Minchin's school, a pair of yellow shoes given to Becky, the black servant of the school, and the decor of the magically-transformed attic room where Sara is forced to live - all stand out vibrantly against the otherwise green environment.

One trait that Sara makes absolute certain not to lose in the chaos of her new life is her imagination and ability to make up vivid stories.  Yes, the scenes that depict her stories coming to life are very obviously unrealistic, but I think they were meant to be that way.  Playful and colourful, dramatic and exaggerated.  No harm there.  And a lot of people don't notice this, but if you pay attention, the "Prince Rama" of her story is played by the same man who plays her father, Captain Crewe, and the princess played by the same actress who plays her mother, showing that she really has a feel for how much her parents loved each other, and her father's sorrow at losing his wife.

I'm glad the subject of race was touched on in this film.  When Sara comes to New York, she has absolutely no idea that white people held a higher rank than blacks at the time, and is very confused about it.  There is a point in the movie where a young girl explains that Becky, the servant, isn't allowed to talk to the girls because "she has dark skin," to which Sara replies, "So?"  The girl responds, "Doesn't...that mean something?" but has no idea what logic drives the argument, having already been brainwashed by the ideas held in the era about race.

Most beautiful scenes in the movie: The entire beginning up until the end of the scene where she is dancing with her father; the scene where Sara's door opens, letting the snow into her room, and she dances in it, happy for just a few moments in spite of her predicament; and the scene where she wakes up in her transformed room, where everything is draped in orange cloth, a fancy breakfast magically awaiting her in her usually dank attic room.  This last scene begins with three or four rapidly repeated shots of her waking up from different angles as the sitar theme sweeps in and gives off the feeling of awe washing over her.  This same technique is used again at the end, when the snobby Lavinia, a classmate, hugs Sara goodbye.  There is some kick-ass camera work in this movie.

The acting was...average...throughout the film.  Can't be too harsh, though, with the large number of first-time child actresses.

I cried TWO times in this movie.  The first time was when Sara has just been told that her father has died and, instead of being comforted, is yelled at and sent to live in the attic, where she sobs and cries out for her father.  The second time was at the climax of the film, when Sara's father (who is not dead, and has actually been taken in by the elderly man next door) wakes from his amnesia and saves Sara from the police, finally remembering who his daughter is.

This was intense, for a kid movie. The ending was far-fetched, though.  I'm still trying to figure out why Ram Dass simply looking at Captain Crewe was enough for him to remember Sara.  If he didn't remember his life in India when Ram Dass was explaining the language of his home country, I don't see why he suddenly (oh so fortunately) remembered right when it was most important.  But then again, it was targeted for young audiences.  And hey, who doesn't like a happy ending once in a while?

Fear not, lovers of romance, myself among you!  This movie contains something for you as well, despite taking place in a dreary school for girls.  The sister of Miss Minchin, Amelia, has an ongoing love affair with the milkman, which is helped along by Sara, who dreamily describes to Amelia how amazing her life could be if she ran away with her lover, away from the cold confines of the boarding school.

This movie is amazing, and I'm going to have to try my best not to go overboard and give it ten million stars.  It had great character development (except in the case of Miss Minchin, who is an eternally vile sort of anchor), principles, and art.  Still, my taste in movies tends to lean toward the surreal, dramatic movies...whatever that means.  So I'm going to under-star it by my standards.

Stars: 3.5/5