The stage hit comes to the screen in a buoyant cloud of good humor and witty songs, though it doesn't have enough cinematic musical dynamism to be a classic.
What children love about Roald Dahl's books is precisely what other writers tend to avoid when adapting them: that streak of icy, unapologetic misanthropy so uplifting to children who have been trained to see the good in everyone. , opening his eyes to the most unpleasant. most ironic adult world that awaits them. Even the slickest and classiest Dahl adaptations tend to soften that cruelty somewhat: Nicolas Roeg's "The Witches" is cruelly terrifying but adds an utterly happy ending, while Wes Anderson's "Fantastic Mr. Fox" dampens the violent survivalism of its original story with its more gently quirky world-building from the director. Already based on one of his kindest stories, "Roald Dahl's Matilda the Musical" softens things further by removing the presence of his funniest adult grotesques to accommodate more of the exuberance of children's eyes. The late author probably would have complained; However, young viewers will be delighted.
Director: Matthew Warchus
Writers: Dennis Kelly, Tim Minchin, Roald Dahl
Stars: Alisha Weir, Emma Thompson, Lashana Lynch
And yet, even when his script dictates otherwise, adults still have the upper hand in director Matthew Warchus' animated screen transfer of his hit musical. The pleasantly precocious lead character of 12-year-old Alisha Weir and a large and eager group of self-proclaimed "disgusting kids" fill the screen in one busy number after another, while defending children's right to be children to their faces. of overbearing adult opposition, only to have Emma Thompson's towering truck-jawed antagonist greedily take the spotlight away from them with each spiteful line reading. The film, on the whole, is light-hearted, sherbet-colored, bursting with goodwill for all good people. What you remember about him, however, is every scene in which the malevolence of the elders deliciously spoils the party.
That balance, right or wrong, is likely to lessen the family-friendly appeal of this year's London Film Festival opener when it hits audiences in December, via Sony in the UK and Netflix elsewhere. When it cunningly hits the streaming platform on Christmas Day, "Matilda" could well become a phenomenon, especially in Britain, where the film has been uncompromisingly adapted. (That makes sense, given that with a four-year run on Broadway, the musical was simply a hit in the United States; still in the West End after 11 years, it's an institution back home.) That will be a relief for any purist. who took issue with Danny DeVito's blatantly Americanized 1996 film from Dahl's book. This Matilda Wormwood drinks tea and eats Cadbury Curly-Wurlies in a corner of suburban England that is updated in its social diversity but otherwise carefully non-specific. No cell phones or computers in sight here: all the better for encouraging our heroine's prodigious book reading.
Cutting through the lengthy episodic setup of Dahl's story and moving closer to his own Tony-winning playbook, screenwriter Dennis Kelly glosses over Matilda's life-changing discovery of literature, instead taking her advancing genius as, well read. Her gleefully vulgar, anti-intellectual parents get little attention here, too, to the point that all their numbers have been cut from Tim Minchin's effervescent score of the song—a shame, really, given how wildly performed by an ideal cast Stephen Graham and Andrea Riseborough, who at least get by creepily on the few scenes they're given.
But there's little time to waste in this restless two-hour film, with Matilda soon sent off to school (years late, not that her parents mind) at the appropriately named Crunchem Hall. There, her extraordinary intelligence immediately attracts the admiration of teacher educator Miss Honey (a charming Lashana Lynch, appropriately sweet but never cloying) and the hostile wrath of athletics-loving, child-hating headmistress Miss Trunchbull. wax jacket in the shape of an agate that represents the pinnacle of Rob Howell's playful wardrobe). Those familiar with the stage show are in for no big surprises now, as the all-too-foreseen discovery of Matilda's telekinetic powers turns the Trunchbull's reign of terror upside down.
Watch Matilda the Musical 2022 Movie Trailer
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