First Take: Matilda the Musical - the exception to the rules (and the Netflix/theatrical window debate)

SYNOPSIS: An adaptation of the Tony and Olivier award-winning musical. Matilda tells the story of an extraordinary girl who, armed with a sharp mind and a vivid imagination, dares to take a stand to change her story with miraculous results.

So, how do you go about taking a property so beloved that the 1996 adaptation is still regarded as an absolute cult classic? You go back to the source material, bring in some West End flavour and add one of the greatest lyrical minds in the world: Aussie comedian and Judas himself (literally) Tim Minchin. Yes, this is not the same beast that Danny DeVito gave us 30 years ago; this is a Matilda that is of its time, and perfect for audiences young and old.

Matthew Warchus is the man tasked with taking the Royal Shakespeare Company’s original production to the big screen, and it’s a production he knows inside and out: he made it happen back in 2010. But he does a brilliant job taking the show and making it work for cinema; working with Dennis Kelly (who wrote the original script too), it is paced very well and has a lot more in common with the book - vibrant, colourful, and extravagant like the Quentin Blake illustrations which graced that novel back in 1988. Almost all of the creatives behind that RSC run worked on the film, with Chris Nightingale returning to score the film, and as you would expect, Minchin’s songs fit the film well- having the same playful nature as the book, as well as having a dark side which fits the more powerful sequences - while some numbers were cut to fit the 1 hour 57 minute runtime (and a new song closes the film, namely to garner those Original Song nominations for Oscar voters), that soundtrack is immense. It’s shot brilliantly too, with Tat Radcliffe behind the camera - and he knows Warchus’ style well, having shot 2014′s Pride with him.

On to that cast, and we’ll start with the major talents- it is a who’s who of British talent, from Stephen Graham, Andrea Riseborough, Lashana Lynch and Sindhu Vee form the main core of major talent, but when it comes to one character, there was only one choice. Emma Thompson does a decent job as Miss Trunchbull, with plenty of Thompson-esque moments, but many cinemagoers who seen the film on the same night I did felt she just didn’t quite nail it - which speaks volumes of how difficult that character is to portray after Pam Ferris’ work on the DeVito version. But the undoubted star of the show, and quite rightly, is 13 year old Alisha Weir, making her big screen debut as Matilda. To deliver that kind of performance, at that age, is astonishing. Warchus has said in the pressers that she earned the role on the strength of her audition, and it’s obvious why she won them over. I sense a long and illustrious career may have started.

THE VERDICT

Matilda the Musical is a proper feel good film - which is what we all need these days. Netflix, the new owners of the Dahl back catalogue, and Sony have played a blinder with the timing of the release too, with an exclusive theatrical run until Christmas Day (in most territories), allowing cinema bigwigs to use it as alternative programming in the build up to a certain film about avatars and their way with water. It’s not often we get a true family film these days, and this definitely hits that audience perfectly.

RATING: 4.5/5