movie review: Matilda

Overall: Not Horrible.

Movie vs Book: I remember liking the book.

Why Movies Like This Are Problematic For Me:
Because when I read the book, it’s easy to perceive everything in it as fantastical, larger than life. Not real. So things like Evil Teachers and Ignored Children are like a fable — they’re metaphorical, used to tell the story, but it’s not a Real Life Tale. Movies, especially live action movies, are harder for me to perceive that way. That’s a real kid on my screen!

And Also I Have A Problem With Bully Revenge Movies:
I used to work with kids, and we were *constantly* emphasizing that most bullies have been bullied themselves. In Matilda, when Ms. Honey does her flashback thing, Agatha has pigtails. Yeah. And she implies that she’s been mocked for being fat. I don’t want to excuse her clearly abusive behavior, but I’m not convinced of her Crazy Evil-ness.

And Also I’m A Big Scaredy-Cat:
I’m basically scared all the time. I’m scared of tons of things. Spiders. Darkness. Being alone in an empty house. Driving. Being laughed at. So the scenes in Matilda where Agatha is terrified? So scared that at one point she actually passes out? Not funny for me. Fear isn’t funny.

And, Okay, The Plot Didn’t Make Much Sense Either:
Ignoring the actually Matilda aspect of the plot, because apparently I just have a lot of Agatha-feels. I didn’t see any evidence that she had anything to do with Magnus’ death. This is a woman who was an Olympic athlete (in the 1972 summer games, interestingly, which must have been a traumatic event all on its own). Taking a wild guess at timeline (since the movie was released in 1996), it was very shortly after that when her brother’s wife died and she was suddenly out of professional athletics and into full time childcare. What would be the motivation for killing Magnus and becoming the kid’s sole guardian? Money? She didn’t *do* anything with it. Plus, if Harry Potter taught us anything, it’s to be suspicious when a character seems *too* evil — maybe a little Severus Snape type deception going on? What if she was protecting Ms. Honey all along from some kind of crazy supernatural threat?

Right, Okay, Totally Done Now:
In conclusion, apparently I had a lot to say about this movie. The end.

Mirrored from The Marci Rating System.