The film is about a very intelligent 6 year old girl who is under appreciated by her family and it's a very good adaptation of the book. The film keeps you interested as Matilda navigates School, her home life and her discovery of her very own telekinetic powers. The film is easy to just go with and the characters are memorable and each bring something special to the film. I definitely recommend!

A charming and fun children's movie with some nice lead performances. It's nothing that hasn't been done before, but it does everything well enough to get a solid recommendation from me. It's just an entertaining and light-hearted film that will definitely resonate with its target crowd of younger children, but it made me feel like a kid at the same time. The film is smart and doesn't have juvenile humor or a half-baked story. It's actually a very well told story with a good message and is well directed by Danny DeVito. There's plenty of memorable characters played wonderfully by some lesser known actors/actresses. Imaginative and unique, Matilda is a movie that children of all ages will likely enjoy on some level, but also happens to be a worthwhile time for the whole family.

Matilda Wormwood (Mara Wilson) is a brilliant girl born to neglectful boorish parents Harry (Danny DeVito) and Zinnia (Rhea Perlman). She goes the library by herself in search of books to read. As she grows older, she gets into ever greater struggle against her father as she punishes him. He's under surveillance by the FBI. He sends Matilda to the rundown Crunchem Hall run by the cruel headmistress Agatha Trunchbull. She finds solace in the students and the kind-hearted Miss Jennifer Honey (Embeth Davidtz).This is a movie for little kids who yearn for power over the adults who don't pay attention. I don't want to discount that demographic. It's not necessarily for me. There's really nothing for anybody over 12. The movie needs Miss Honey earlier in the movie. She's the only nice adult in the entire movie.

Childhood memories aside, this movie barley holds up.Its antagonist is ridiculous, being able to get away with torturing children in a society where their parents can enjoy TV shows. Any child in their right mind would have told their parents or the police and that lady would have been fired.Furthermore, Matilda's parents are some of the worst characters ever spawned out of film. Were they supposed to relate to children with abusive parents? Its as if the main demographic is mentally abused children and yet that number of children pales in comparison to the number of children who love their parents and attend a good and caring school. This movie will end up labeling school principals as incarnates of hell and would make parents look like the biggest douches in the world. And people LOVE this movie! Are you kidding me?This film is laughable at best. Its 'redeeming' aspects stress strength in solidarity, and a love for learning. But in the context these things are being shown, they are nothing. Lessons that fail because they are overshadowed by the utterly stupid parents and a demonic principal that will never exist in the real world.I suppose people will blame me for failing to address other aspects of the film, like the good teacher, or Matilda's friends. Of course the teacher is also laughably perfect, as if to say that such a person also exists in the real world. Giving children the expectation that maybe they will meet a person that nice, further inspiring mixed feelings toward their own parents and their school. But neither do I address Matilda's powers, which she uses to solve problems, making everything look laughably easy to do in an abusive situation. Which would make children fail to realize that a lot of their comforts in life come from the hard work their parents put in.This movie is fine and fun to watch. But it is most certainly not a good movie, regardless of how much you loved it when you were 6 years old.