Matilda movie review: Netflix delivers moving musical adaptation of Roald Dahl’s rousing classic

For instance, the horrid headmistress Miss Trunchbull resembles a KGB agent more than a modern educator; she spies on the students of the Crunchem Primary School from dozens of Cold War-era monitors in her den, and exercises discipline by wielding unchallenged control, like the warden of a gulag. “No snivelling,” are the first words that greet students as they enter school, whose motto, Miss Trunchbull tells us in an early scene, is ‘children are maggots’.

She’s played by Emma Thompson as a cross between a drill sergeant and the many authority figures that Boman Irani has brought to life in his accomplished career. A former Olympic athlete who despises children of all shapes and sizes, Miss Trunchbull is a quintessential kids movie villain — a representative of all grown-ups who are blinded by the belief that they’re always correct, but not above redemption.

It helps that Thompson delivers a scenery-chewing performance from behind three inches of prosthetics on her face. She’s rather unrecognisable in the role, which has historically been played by men in drag on stage. I discovered that Ralph Fiennes was originally cast, before Thompson took over.

Her over-the-top turn presence is balanced by the rather toned-down supporting role played Lashana Lynch as the kind teacher Miss Honey, and the central performance by newcomer Alisha Weir, who is so plucky, and so endearing as the little Matilda. Having survived under her cartoonishly evil parents, played with Dursley-esque villainy by the hilarious Stephen Graham and Andrea Riseborough, she is sent off to Crunchem — a formidable institution where she is greeted by traumatised students and teachers who’ve forgotten what it is like to live freely.

JK Rowling hasn’t quite admitted it, but her Harry Potter stories — especially the early ones — owe a great debt to Dahl’s work, dominated as it is by cruel guardians, terrifying authority figures, but also found family and whimsy.

Aimed at very young children — the film is rated 7+ on Netflix — Matilda doesn’t avoid addressing the rather serious themes at its core. To be clear, it doesn’t turn into a Ken Loach movie in the early scenes that depict what is essentially child abuse, but Minchin’s music and lyrics, disguised behind Warchus’ colourful staging, tackle troubling social ills head on. “Just because I find myself in this story, it doesn’t mean that everything is written for me,” Matilda sings, dismissing the concept of determinism with a spring in her step and a quiet confidence that her brittle voice doesn’t do justice to. In the same song, she challenges the idiosyncratic British belief in maintaining a stiff upper-lip, and equates it to accepting one’s fate, regardless of how terrible it is.

At nearly two hours long, Matilda can feel a little bloated despite the colourful characters and the fun musical numbers, and I’d imagine the film’s target audience will feel its length more easily. But the performances are pure, the characters are clearly defined, and the lessons that it is so eager to impart are valuable.

Matilda
Director – Matthew Warchus
Cast – Alisha Weir, Emma Thompson, Lashana Lynch, Andrea Riseborough, Stephen Graham
Rating – 3.5/5