From Broadway to screen, newest 鈥楳atilda鈥� is high-spirited fun
In the dark but joyful film聽鈥淩oald Dahl鈥檚 Matilda the Musical,鈥澛燼 young girl applies the lessons of fairness and uprightness she learns from books to the real world.
In the dark but joyful film聽鈥淩oald Dahl鈥檚 Matilda the Musical,鈥澛燼 young girl applies the lessons of fairness and uprightness she learns from books to the real world.
As I left my screening of 鈥淩oald Dahl鈥檚 Matilda the Musical,鈥� I wondered how a movie so macabre could also be so joyful. But of course, this is the defining dualism of Dahl鈥檚 beloved 1988 children鈥檚 book and its numerous incarnations, including the underrated 1996 non-musical
Danny DeVito adaptation, and the hit Royal Shakespeare Company stage production that became an award-winning musical smash on Broadway.聽
The team behind that show 鈥� director Matthew Warchus, composer and lyricist Tim Minchin, and librettist Dennis Kelly 鈥� have reunited for the film. The good news is that their movie doesn鈥檛 suffer from the stagebound creakiness that so often afflicts Broadway-to-Hollywood transfers. It鈥檚 a bouncy, eye-popping jamboree; the bustling musical numbers interweave seamlessly. The even better news is that, despite all the camera pirouettes and outsize performances, it never loses sight of its central theme: how, in an often cruel world, the magic of storytelling can sustain us.
The ferociously precocious Matilda, played with sharp-eyed spunk by the young Irish actor Alisha Weir, is a big disappointment to her boorish parents, Mr. and Mrs. Wormwood (Stephen Graham and Andrea Riseborough, both in top garish form). Her father, a sleazy used-car salesman, wishes she had been born a boy. Much to Matilda鈥檚 very vocal annoyance, he consistently refers to her as such. Her mother, who traipses about in leopard-skin blouses, barely registers her daughter鈥檚 presence.
The idea that these nutbrain adults are homeschooling Matilda is doubly ridiculous since the girl can do complicated math problems in her head and devours literature from the local bookmobile 鈥� not just children鈥檚 books, but novels like 鈥淭he Grapes of Wrath.鈥� (Mr. Wormwood can鈥檛 understand how grapes can feel wrath.)
At first, it seems like a mercy all around when Matilda is enrolled in the local Crunchem Hall, where she dazzles her classmates and her kindly schoolteacher Miss Honey (a touching Lashana Lynch) with her skills. But, of course, this is Roald Dahl territory, so it鈥檚 not long before we are introduced to the story鈥檚 chief nemesis, the appropriately named Miss Trunchbull, who rules the roost with such evil relish that the school resembles nothing so much as a penitentiary. The big bold lettering on a statue near the entryway proclaims, 鈥淣o Snivelling.鈥澛�
We should all be indebted to Emma Thompson for taking on this character, who might have given even Charles Dickens the willies. It鈥檚 a truism that actors love playing scoundrels much more than goody-goodies 鈥� though Thompson excels at both. Here she goes full out into villainy mode, and she鈥檚 a hoot. Built like a sofa, with a blocklike jaw and a tight-fitting, military-style uniform, Trunchbull resembles a cross between a slab of granite and Mussolini. She had once been an Olympic shot put and hammer throw champion, and during one of the school鈥檚 athletic exercises, she tosses a girl by her pigtails high over a wall. 鈥淐heck to see if the child is still alive, won鈥檛 you?鈥� she blithely asks an underling.聽
Trunchbull and her many abuses meet their match in Matilda, who, when warned that this gorgon is dangerous, responds, 鈥淪o am I!鈥� Matilda鈥檚 uppity courage is the story鈥檚 secret ingredient. It鈥檚 the reason why, despite its gruesome trappings, it鈥檚 so revivifying. The filmmakers don鈥檛 try to tone down Dahl鈥檚 darkness or sentimentalize the children鈥檚 plight. They recognize how condescending that would come across, not only to the kids in the audience but to the adults, too. (The film works well for both.)
Matilda is a hero because she recognizes that the lessons about fairness and uprightness that she learns from books can be applied to the real world. They can save her and her classmates and Miss Honey. Matilda is also endowed with the Stephen King-like gift of psychokinesis, but the truth is, she doesn鈥檛 really need it. Her brain, and the movie in which she triumphs, are already quite exuberant without it. 聽
Peter Rainer is the Monitor鈥檚 film critic. 鈥淩oald Dahl鈥檚 Matilda the Musical鈥澛�opens in select theaters on Dec. 9, and streams on Netflix starting Dec. 25. The film is rated PG for thematic elements, exaggerated bullying, and some language.聽