Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical’ on Netflix, a Delightful Adaptation Starring a Berserk Emma Thompson

Netflix drops Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical because they know what they’ve got here: a wonderful adaptation of the hit West End and Broadway musical based on Dahl’s widely beloved 1988 novel. It’s not the first movie version of this story; Danny DeVito directed the 1996 Matilda that drummed up positive reviews but not much else. So there’s plenty of room to reinvigorate here, and director Matthew Warchus – who directed the West End musical – finds a wonder of a lead in Alisha Weir, working alongside rising star Lashana Lynch (The Woman King, No Time to Die) and stalwart veteran Emma Thompson. As far as Christmas gifts go, it’s a good one.

ROALD DAHL’S MATILDA THE MUSICAL: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: YELLOW. Everything is SO YELLOW in the maternity ward as mothers and fathers and babies sing about how newborns are little wondrous miracles. And then there’s Mr. and Mrs. Wormwood (Stephen Graham and Andrea Riseborough). He wanted a boy. She was in denial that she was even pregnant. They wheel baby Matilda out wearing expressions of disgust like they’ve just been handed a life sentence. And they have – it’s Matilda’s. How much time passes here? A decade, give or take a bit? Seems about right. Matilda (Weir) spends her time reading, and when she’s not reading, she’s probably reading. “It’s like a holiday in your head,” she says, and she needs the holidays, because her parents are loathsome selfish grotesque ingrates who seem to have decorated themselves and their home with the leftover material from the Mar-a-Lago honeymoon suite circa 1987. Hideous people, they are.

Matilda lives in two places: her parents’ attic, or in Mrs. Phelps’ (Sindhu Vee) portable library. Truant officials soon put her in school, where her teacher is Miss Honey (Lynch), who’s as sweet as her name, and her headmistress is Miss Agatha Trunchbull (Thompson), a vicious old fascist cementmixer of a woman who probably has to start herself up every morning by jamming in a handle and cranking away. Trunchbull runs the school like a Siberian gulag. The place makes the pit in Buffalo Bill’s basement look like a Greek-isle resort. Trunchbull refers to children as “maggots” and feeds them glop in a pot and when they misbehave they end up in a spike-lined box affectionately dubbed “the chokey.” When Miss Honey dares enter the headmistress’ surveillance-state office, Trunchbull spits, “Don’t just stand there like a wet tissue!” When she puckers her lips to blow a whistle like she’s releasing the hounds, there’s more than a hint of a mustache. Did I mention she’s the villain of the story?

Somehow, the universe has rendered Matilda so smart, she explodes the precocity scale. She can solve complex calculus formulae and she reads Dostoevsky. She visits Mrs. Phelps and shares chapters of a story she concocted about a forlorn circus-performer couple who can’t have children and therefore decide to partake in an insane stunt – so she appears to have great fiction-writing talent, too. Matilda’s destiny, obviously, is to make sure Trunchbull’s karmic retribution is more succulent than butter-drenched lobster tail. It won’t be quick or easy, though. She has to navigate her parents’ crass stupidity, and observe as her poor classmates suffer at Trunchbull’s scaly hand. Miss Honey encourages her the best she can considering the totalitarian regime. The tables begin to turn when the children sing and dance a heartwrenching stunner, “When I Grow Up” – and when Matilda shows a hint of telekinetic ability. Time to move over, Carrie!

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: I’m not saying Matilda is precisely on par with a classic, but it gives me some vibrant Mary Poppins vibes.

Performance Worth Watching: Thompson’s putridity is the eighth wonder of the world; Keir and Lynch’s earnestness may combine to form the ninth.

Memorable Dialogue: You have not lived until you’ve heard Emma Thompson deliver the line, “We are not here to encourage or nurture. We are here to crush them until the wriggling stops.”

Sex and Skin: None.

Our Take: Exaggerationland is the perfect place to stage a musical. It sets the stage for amusing hyperbole and the outsized emotions that Broadway-style song-and-dance conveys. And considering Matilda is told from the perspective of a highly imaginative child – where the seeds of hyperbole and outsized emotions find such fertile purchase – this project is marvelously tight in concept. Too frequently for me, musicals are like an obnoxious drunk who won’t shut up. This musical is like being in the company of a talented and intelligent young person who isn’t afraid to express both traits.

There are times when Matilda the Musical meanders and drifts a little, maybe goes on a touch too long. But it’s acceptable when characters like Matilda, Miss Honey and Trunchbull are so crisply drawn. The former two are sympathetic, warm, smart people who deserve better than they have; as their friendship blossoms, our hearts are hooked. The latter is a hideous exotic beast that you’d like to capture and study – oh my lord does she need therapy – but ultimately is too much of a corruptive force for this world.

So the performances are key, and they’re universally terrific, from Riseborough and Graham’s skeevy characterizations to the assemblage of child actors, who inject the production with rambunctious energy. The musical numbers are dynamically directed and choreographed, for visual oomph. The core of Dahl’s story is its blend of playfulness and empathy, which is fully intact here. The laughs are big, and the same goes for its heart.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Matilda the Musical is a delight.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com.