Special Edition / Blu-ray

Matilda Blu-ray Review

Matilda, meet Carrie. Carrie, Matilda.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman, December 8, 2013



That's one talented little girl.

Quickly: name the movie about a girl who uses her telekinetic powers to get even with the people who have done her wrong. Chances are many would respond with Carrie , Director Brian De Palma filmed adaptation of the Stephen King novel of the same name. The second most common answer, and probably tops amongst families with younger children (or children of the 1990s), would be, the touching Danny DeVito-directed charmer about a mistreated girl and the somewhat disturbing but mostly comical antics that follow her mental maturation and the development of her telekinetic powers. Indeed,feels likefor a younger audience. It, too, is based on a book, this one penned by British Author Roald Dahl and published in 1988. It's not quite as dark and powerful as De Palma's film, but it's mostly a joyous, innocent, likable little film with simple moral objectives and a fun, family-friend vibe. It's not a perfect movie, but it's perfectly suitable for most viewers and a fine little film that will please the entire family.The Wormwood family -- greasy used car salesman father Harry (Danny DeVito), mother Zinnia (Rhea Perlman), and son Michael (Brian Levinson) -- have just welcomed a new member to the family: Matilda (Mara Wilson). Perhaps "welcome" is too strong a word. She's not taken home from the hospital for love but rather for obligation. She's seen as a burden, not a gift. She's mistreated, left home alone, and ignored unless her parents deem that she's done something wrong, like express a desire to read a book. She cares for herself and develops an intelligence and a hunger for literature at a young age. When she grows old enough to attend school, she's not enrolled. She sneaks out to the library and reads everything she can find. Her parents believe reading to be a waste of her time, which would be better spent in front of the television. When Harry sells a used car to a woman named Trunchbull (Pam Ferris), he learns that she runs a school for children Matilda's age. Matilda is quickly enrolled but discovers the school is more a prison and less a learning environment. She's welcomed by her peers and her kindly teacher, Miss Honey (Embeth Davidtz), but must contend with parents who do not care for her and a principal in Trunchbull who would rather see her fail than encourage success. When things get out of control, Matilda must turn to unusual means of saving herself from the coming of a wasted existence.There are two sides to thecoin, and it's in how well they mesh together that the film finds most of its dramatic and comedic success. The film is certainly one of extremes. There's the ultra-smart Matilda and the incredibly polite Miss Honey, both allied with a group of mostly cheery students who want only to learn and interact in a clean, welcoming education environment. They're contrasted against Matilda's family and Miss Trunchbull, the former more or less just like the Dursley family from the Harry Potter series and the latter a frightening hybrid, perhaps best thought of as the drill sergeant in Full Metal Jacket combined with some hulking PED-absusing olympic amazonian. In essence, it's sugar and spice and everything nice against the most sour, fouled, spiteful, and hateful bunch humanity has to offer, but without losing its family-friendly spirit amongst them. The film does a fine job of contrasting the two, particularly the villains, with an almost grossly over-the-top series of exaggerations, frightening close-ups, and heavily stylized shots, decorations, and colors. Director Danny DeVito makes it incredibly easy to cheer on Matilda and Miss Honey and wish for the worst for Trunchbull and the Wormwood family.Yet what are the film's blessings are also its curses. There are several scenes that play it a bit too far, that linger too long, that go to gross excess to reinforce a point that's already been made, and usually on more than one occasion. Some of those Trunchbull close-ups, for example, show off the fine makeup work but can be rather frightening, not as reinforcements of the character's demeanor but in that the character just isn't pretty to look at in such extremes. Several scenes play out for far too long, too, including the famous "cake eating" scene. There's certainly no nuance lost in the movie; it's all exposed and laid on the table in every scene, for better or for worse, thankfully primarily for the former. The film is also simplistically predictable almost to a fault, but then again the point isn't mystery but rather arriving at the inevitable happy ending. The entire film is built to satisfy a fundamental urge for peace and tranquility following stress and hardship, both of which are piled on but, ultimately, worth the slog of structural repetitiveness and terrifying close-ups when everything winds up hunky-dory in the end.