Opening, rather fittingly, with a funeral procession that sounds the death knell for the rest of the film, The Secret Of Moonacre is an exceedingly gloomy tale of thwarted love, adapted from the children’s classic The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge.

There’s scant cheer in Lucy Shuttleworth and Graham Alborough’s plodding screenplay, nor much in the way of magic or gung-ho adventure.

Indeed, the only air of mystery surrounds why such lifeless material attracted esteemed talent in front of and behind the camera including Hungarian director Gabor Csupo, whose live action debut, Bridge To Terabithia, was one of the finest family films of recent years.

Alas, Csupo is unable to spark this turgid fairy-tale to life.

The darkness that settles over the picture’s fantastical setting – a valley living in the shadow of an ancient curse – is reflected in director of photography David Eggby’s cold, muted palette.

Only in the copious flashbacks does colour radiate from the screen but the fractured chronology proves frustrating and undermines any efforts to sustain dramatic momentum.

The film’s diminutive heroine is plucky, 13-year-old orphan, Maria Merryweather (Dakota Blue Richards), who is forced to seek lodgings with her gruff uncle, Sir Benjamin Merryweather (Ioan Gruffudd), on the isolated Moonacre Valley estate.

Accompanied by dithering governess Miss Heliotrope (Juliet Stevenson), Maria arrives at the estate carrying her inheritance, a leather bound copy of The Ancient Chronicles Of Moonacre Valley, which reveals her family’s dark history.

In the book’s pages, she learns of the doomed marriage of Sir Wrolf Merryweather (Gruffudd) and the Moon Princess (Natascha McElhone), daughter of Couer De Noir (Tim Curry), and about a set of enchanted pearls, which brought the two clans into conflict.

Unless the necklace is located by the rising of the 5000th moon, the entire valley will be destroyed, which is exactly what Sir William De Noir (Curry) and his vengeful family want.

‘At last the valley will be ours and we will finally feast on revenge!’ he bellows.

Pursued by Sir William and his teenage son Robin (Augustus Prew), Maria enlists the help of manservant Digweed (Michael Webber) and chef extraordinaire Marmaduke Scarlet (Andy Linden) to locate the pearls, and in the process reunite her uncle with his soul mate, Loveday (McElhone).

The Secret Of Moonacre is a bore, with nothing to hold the interest of younger viewers.

Performances are more wooden than some of the sets.

Richards struggles to make her tyke endearing and Stevenson’s jittery comedy routine falls flat, while Gruffudd delivers his lines as if he is hearing them for the first time.

Occasional computer-generated visual effects, including a black lion that begs unfavourable comparisons to Aslan in the Narnia series, do not look realistic.

The digital trickery melds awkwardly with the live action, especially in the watery climax, which cannot arrive soon enough.

• Release Date: Friday 6 February 2009
• Certificate: U
• Runtime: 103mins

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