★★★☆☆
How do you turn a hit stage musical into a convincing film? Part of the charm of a West End musical is being there in the room, with the performers right in front of your very eyes. You can feel the music in your bones, it’s almost alive. It’s magical, thrilling and can’t be beaten or recreated.
So already, Matthew Warchus’ Matilda The Musical is at a disadvantage. It can’t – and it’s not supposed to – recreate the momentum of a stage musical, but it does need to transfer the plot, the songs and the rhythm of the whole thing to the big screen without sacrificing the spectacle.
I’m glad to report that Matilda, which is receiving its world premiere at the BFI London Film Festival tonight, does this fairly adequately. It’s not quite as fun as the 90s film adaptation and the songs lack a little something, but it’s still a wonderfully warm and faithful adaptation of Roald Dahl’s iconic story.
Credit: Sony Pictures Releasing
Our heroine is Matilda (newcomer Alisha Weir), the unwanted daughter of Mr. (Stephen Graham, sporting some gnarly fake teeth) and Mrs. Wormwood (Andrea Riseborough). Matilda has never attended school but is a bright little thing and loves a good book. She’s often found lounging on the local mobile library’s roof or telling the librarian, Mrs. Phelps, stories she comes up with on the spot almost.
When the Wormwoods finally send her to Ms. Honey’s (Lashana Lynch, so impressive in The Woman King) class at the terrifying Crunchem Hall, the headstrong Matilda clashes with the cruel headmistress Ms. Trunchbull (Emma Thompson in a grotesque fat suit).
There is a lot to admire, even adore, in Matilda. Weir is charismatic and Lynch is warm and inviting. Sindhu Vee is also a welcome addition to the cast and Matilda’s stories lend a bit more fantasy to the whole affair. All the dance sequences are dynamic and performed well and the song, while not exactly earworms, are catchy enough. But something is missing.
Matilda never quite soars, even though it’s constantly entertaining. It’s a little choppy too; one gets the sense there’s a cut that had more scenes with Riseborough, who is brilliant, but criminally underused here. Matilda is also plagued by a sense of shallowness; none of the characters are very well written and no motives or backstories are offered for most of them.
Credit: Sony Pictures Releasing
Or maybe Matilda is brought down by Emma Thompson. It’s not that she’s bad, she’s never bad. In fact, she’s very funny and clearly has loads of fun with such a heightened, caricature-like role, but her ghastly prosthetics and the fat suit are far too distracting. Thompson is also arguably the biggest name among the starry cast and Warchus keeps putting the spotlight on her when it should be on Weir’s Matilda.
Tim Minchin’s music is great, with ‘Revolting Children’ a highlight. All the numbers are staged well and David Hindle and Christian Huband’s production design is detailed and there’s great juxtaposition of Matilda’s colourful, over-the-top home and the dreary, almost gothic hallways of Crunchem Hall. Overall, the film’s visual look is on point, but Matilda has no business being almost two hours long.
Warchus does a decent job at attempting to recreate a musical experience in the cinema. Matilda lacks balance and focus, but this is a joyous film with great performances and some great choreography.
Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical premiered at BFI London Film Festival and is released in cinemas November 25.
