For many, the story of Matilda has been with us our entire lives. It’s the story of a plucky young girl who through adversity, finds a new family and home…whilst also developing magical powers along the way. Based on a book by Roald Dahl, Matilda was loving made into a film in the nineties by Danny DeVito before becoming a long-running stage musical on the West End in 2010, with music by Tim Minchin. And like Hairspray before it, Matilda the Musical has now become it’s very own movie. Much like it’s half-pint heroine, the story has had a long journey, but will it soar to new heights or spend the rest of its days in the chokey?
Matilda the Musical…the film, revolves around out titular young girl who was born to uncaring loutish parents who mistakenly call her a boy and see her more of a nuisance than anything. One day she is sent to school – the ominous Crunchem Hall – run by the villainous and cruel Mrs Trunchball. As torturous her days at school are, Matilda finds solace in the kindly Miss Honey and the pair bond over their fractured childhoods. One day, her parents and Trunchball push Matilda too far and soon, she discovers she has magical gifts.
Director Matthew Warchus, whose previous outing Pride won much acclaim, adapts the stage musical with a lot of heart and a lot of colour. Though Matilda may be overtly saccharine; it is still charged with a vibrant energy that hits from the first song Miracle. It helps that there is a collective of young performers who really come together as the long-suffering students of the school. Warchus does what modern movie musicals are missing – allows the big, choreographed dance numbers to sit happily on the screen and come alive with the music, instead of cutting between many different close-ups
The true triumph here young performer Aisha Weir. The young starlet is tremendous to watch. Singing, dancing, and tackling the emotional heft of Matilda’s story, Weir is incrediby watchable as Matilda, making the character her own. She is helped by some brilliant adult performances. Emma Thompson, under the weight of a lot of prosthetics, delivers a gruesome and gruelling Trunchball with some inspired line-readings that’ll make you roll with laughter.
Lashana Lynch has already been a warrior and a spy, but she sheds all that for a quieter more vulnerable Miss Honey. With a earnest vocal performance as well, Lynch’s gives a tender performance as a woman who, through her own suffering, reaches out to young people with kindness and compassion. Lynch, in some scenes, stirs you to tears. What adds a dull note to the whole affair is the garish caricatures of both Trunchball and the Wormwoods – albeit played effectively by Stephen Graham and Andrew Riseborough. Perhaps not the intention of film or the musical before it, (but certainly the intention of Dahl,) the two effective working-class parents in the whole film, and the stocky woman, are abhorrent and reprehensible.
Putting that aside, the important message of Matilda the Musical, however, is courage and kindness. It’s about finding a new family for all those children without a whole home to call their own. It’s about discovering a braveness through one’s brutal upbringing. It’s about finding your own special power to stand up and say no. Add this to some snappy numbers from Tim Minchin, and the boundless energy of the children, then this is certain to be a hit. Far from revolting, Matilda is fun for children of all ages.
