Matilda is a much beloved story about a brilliant girl, who comes from a horrible family and attends an even more horrible school. Like much of the work of legendary writer Roald Dahl's is filled with grotesque cruel adults and often quite horrific incidents of abuse. The dark undertones of his work can be disturbing and yet often empowering as the children in his stories overcome that abuse. The magic in the best adaptations is to find a way to balance telling these stories of children suffering at the hands of the adults in their lives with their ultimate success in overcoming it all through their own uniqueness and caring.
Tim Minchin and Dennis Kelly's stage musical adaptation accomplishes this quite well, retaining some of the upsetting aspects while inspiring a lot of hope and humour. The songs are inspiring and catchy and the story just comes together into a crowd pleasing delight despite how terrible a lot of what we've seen is.
Taking to this the screen, I loved director Warchus' style in telling this story which is filled with rich colours and a slightly magical approach which suggests fantasy while remaining grounded in the real world. This helps Matilda's story feel both realistic and incredible at once fitting a tale of a brilliant young girl living in a world designed to keep her down while she finds her own ways to escape. It captures the balance of the stage musical so well.
The cast is clearly having a fun time. Matilda isn't a story for subtlety so the cast go to extremes with their roles, Emma Thompson's character being the best example of this covered in ugly make up and stomping around like she's Godzilla in B-movie. But that's all part of the charm of the story, and a big part of mitigating the horrors of the character who is truly criminal in her behaviour.
The film hits all the right notes and finds just the right balance. It is beautifully filmed making it a joy to watch. While it might be a bit dark for younger children, this adaptation of Matilda fits into the Dahl canon of films.
Matilda the Musical
Starring: Alisha Weir, Emma Thompson, Lashana Lynch, Stephen Graham, Andrea Riseborough, Sidhu Vee
Director: Matthew Warchus
Writer: Dennis Kelly
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