This movie flopped at the box office but is very well liked and remembered better than the number of people that went to see it. Released in 1996 it stars Danny DeVito as Matilda’s father and the narrator, Rhea Perlman, Embeth Davidtz, Pam Ferris & Mara Wilson. This film isn’t going to wake the scorers on the Tri-Critic Sync Challenge as IMDb gave it just 6.9/10 and Rotten Tomatoes loved it with a 90%. To cover the negative it was produced on a budget of $36m and went on to make $33m at the box office which is a loss no matter how you dress it up.
Matilda is a young girl with very magical powers she can move things with her mind she is a very young Carrie. Her family do not care for her and send her to a school where the head teacher makes Hitler look kind. She is beyond evil to the kids but the parents are not worried by her as its Matilda who should be scared of her. Her class teacher is the only one that is kind to her and not only that she is also the only person to see Matilda’s great mind and try to help enhance that intelligence. With a head teacher bullying the kids as well as the staff and parents that have no love for her or her enjoyment Matilda is heading for an unhappy life until she teams up with her loving but weak backboned class teacher.
OK brief summary time as this does not strictly stick to the story from the book but I firmly believe they capture the feeling of the book. This is a classic Roald Dhal story and he was and will always be a legend in this household. It’s a lovely movie it has a kind heart and makes Miss Agatha Trunchbull is so evil that you like her because she is so unbelievably evil that she clearly cannot be a real person.The family are completely uninterested in her to the point they ignore her speaking and pay no attention to her but it all builds up to the point where she decides to fight back. The love of this film has been reignited when the stage show was launched to huge success and seeing this story on stage with a similar Trunchbull but with music and song this is more of a recommended than the movie from me.I enjoy this movie and one you can sit and watch with the kids but unfortunately probably younger than mine are now so I don’t get to watch this very often (shh I don’t mind that).This is a sweet kind hearted movie that probably deserved more from the box office than it got.
Comments