Rating: ★★★☆☆ (3/5)
But the pacing stumbles. A middle-act detour involving a bankrupt toymaker and a sentient grandfather clock bloats the runtime without adding emotional heft. Voss remains captivating — her Mary is a cousin to Paddington’s Mrs. Bird, gruff yet bottomlessly kind — yet the screenplay saddles her with cryptic monologues that sound profound but dissolve upon reflection.
Fans of The Secret Garden , slow-burn fantasy, and anyone who believes the best magic doesn’t shout — it waits.
