Plot: Preteen Amanda "Mandie" Shaw (Lexi Johnson) is devastated by the sudden death of her beloved father - and by the realization that she will now be at the mercy of her greedy mother and bad-tempered sister, who plan to send her to work for another family and get her out of their lives. In desperation, she runs away to the mansion of her father's estranged brother; but when she gets there, caretaker Jason Bond (Dean Jones) gently informs her that her uncle has been lost at sea - and no one can find his will. Mandie, her friend Joe Woodard (William Yelton), and next-door neighbor Polly Cornwallis (Amanda Waters) race to find the will for Jason before any of the relatives do - and in the process, Mandie discovers some incredible secrets about her father's family and her own past.
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High Points:
- First-ever dramatization of the popular Mandie books
- Heartwarming story that stays relatively true to the book (perhaps even improves on it a little)
- Sensitive, understated performance by Dean Jones
- Filmed on location in the breathtaking hills of North Carolina in autumn, and in a fabulous old antebellum mansion
- Clean, family-friendly movie
Could Be Better:
- Joe. I mean ... a pale little kid with blond curls, who talks with an affected drama-class voice and wears stylishly dapper clothes? That's not the Joe that I grew up with. And Uncle John's long hair is a little scary.
- There are a few professional-quality actors in the cast, but for the most part, the film has a decidedly amateur feel.
- The movie is LONG.
- The cinematography is weird - there is a lot of computer-enhancing, and sometimes it feels like you're looking through an old warped spyglass or something.
- The movie, while making a strong effort to tone down the racial stereotyping found in the book, does still feature fairly strong stereotypes of Native Americans and African Americans.
- The story tells about Mandie's family history through flashbacks during the main story, but the flashbacks tend to be abrupt and interrupt the flow of the story.
Possible Concerns:
- At the beginning of the movie when Mandie's father has died, Joe comforts Mandie with a hug from behind. However, the romance that was ever-present in the books actually is heavily played down in the movie, and this is the only instance of them being affectionate.
- There is an expectant mother in a couple of scenes; it is quite appropriately handled, but I know that my family is old-fashioned and doesn't usually feel quite comfortable with depictions of pregnancy in mixed company. :-)
- Mandie is given a bath by Liza in one short scene, but the very thick bubbles come up to almost cover her shoulders.
Vicki's Vote: 3/5
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In desperation, Mandie runs away with her father's Cherokee friend Uncle Ned, who takes her to the enormous mansion of her father's estranged brother, John Shaw. She is immediately taken in by the servants - Aunt Lou, Liza, and caretaker Jason Bond - but as soon as she gets settled in, Jason gently informs her that her uncle was caught in a terrible storm on his way to Europe and is presumed dead. Mandie is crushed - it seems as though she will never have a real family.
But Jason presents one last chance for Mandie to find a piece of her father's family - her uncle's missing will. As Mandie and her friends Joe Woodard and Polly Cornwallis dig through secret passageways and generation-old documents to find the will, pieces of the puzzle start to fall into place in a very strange way. Could there be a special secret behind her father's Indian Princess story?
Having read all forty-something of the Mandie books during my
childhood and teenagerhood, I was very excited to hear that someone was
finally making a movie about them - so with excitement and trepidation, I
settled down last night to watch Mandie and the Secret Tunnel.More than two hours later, I tried to prop my eyelids open with my fingers as the last chord finally sounded and Mandie finally fell into the arms of ... well, if you've read the books you'll know who. :-)
It took me a full ten minutes to decide whether I liked the movie. I believe I did like it. The adventure themes of the book were strongly played up, and the gooey sentiment was strongly played down - it made the story much more accessible to boys and families in general, and removed all of the uncomfortable book scenes where 13-year-old Joe declares his intent to marry 11-year-old Mandie. The tone of the movie was much more lighthearted than the tear-soaked book, and many of the scenes were quite funny. The setting of the movie was utterly spectacular - Uncle John's mansion was much grander and more ornate than I ever imagined it in the books, and it was filmed in the full autumn glory of North Carolina.
The biggest drawback to the movie was also the most inevitable, and that was the spotty casting. Some of the actors delivered professional-quality performances that were a delight to watch - particularly the ever-charming Dean Jones, whose performance is amazingly subtle and nuanced - but many of the actors were mediocre, and many of the lines fell very flat. It also feels absolutely interminable - it's only 1 hour and 40 minutes minutes long, but many scenes drag badly and it feels much longer than that. However, there are many good things about this movie as well. It brings much more of the Cherokee part of the series into the movie, which boosts the interest level dramatically. It doesn't do much to explain Mandie's twisted family history, but in some ways, that makes the movie more enjoyable because the focus is on the action, not on the elopements and annulments and everything else that went on. The costumes were fairly period-accurate (I was especially impressed with the Cherokees' costumes), and they gave some personality many of the "flatter" characters, such as Jim and John Shaw and Elizabeth. Oh yes, and Polly Cornwallis was made much more likeable and innocent than the boy-crazy Polly of the book. :-)
On the whole, I think Mandie and the Secret Tunnel is a good family movie that I would recommend seeing once. Unless you are a Mandie fan, it probably isn't worth watching twice; but it was fun to watch once, and it's a good, clean movie that I would recommend to any Christian family.
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For More Information:
(actually the synopsis of the book, but the movie follows the book pretty closely)
