A Little Princess

Sara Crewe grows up in India with her widowed father, living in comfort and filling her days with invented tales drawn from the stories around her. When the First World War begins, he joins the British army, and Sara is sent to New York to board at the same school her late mother once attended. There she comes up against Miss Minchin, the headmistress, whose strict rules leave little room for Sara's imagination or her independent streak. News that her father has been reported dead and that the family fortune is gone turns Sara from a paying pupil into a servant, scrubbing floors and running errands to keep her place. Her friends among the girls, and the conviction that she remains a princess whatever her circumstances, sustain her through the change.

The film is Alfonso Cuarón's first English-language feature and the earliest title among the nine he has directed, arriving before Great Expectations and Y Tu Mamá También. Richard LaGravenese and Elizabeth Chandler wrote the screenplay, Mark Johnson produced, and the cast includes Liesel Matthews as Sara, Eleanor Bron as Miss Minchin, Liam Cunningham as Captain Crewe, Rusty Schwimmer, Vanessa Lee Chester and Rachael Bella.

Made for about 17 million US dollars, it took roughly 10 million worldwide, a modest return. Audiences on TMDB rate it highly at 7.6 from over a thousand votes, while IMDb shows 6.4 from a much smaller sample. A critics' score of 8.2 from 38 reviews sits well above the audience figures.