Last night we watched "Matilda." Our greatgrandson had read the book by Roald Dahl and we had seen the movie before. Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman are the worst parents and little Matilda's school principal is not only totally terrible but the worst school principal imaginable. That is saying something but it is true.
When we watched "Continental Drift" last week, much of my pleasure came from watching my greatgrandson. Matilda is a bit more realistic movie with real actors instead of drawings. The parents are so close-minded and the principal so filled with hatred of children that the story is not at all realistic, I dearly hope.
We follow Matilda from birth up to the age of second grade. Most parents would notice the signs of extreme intelligence but not Mr. and Mrs. Wormwood. When their baby, barely a toddler, spells out "Matilda" in well-formed letters in her spilled babyfood, they don't notice. When Matilda repeatedly tells them that the car across the street is a pair of FBI agents keeping the cheating, businessman of a dad under surveillance, they don't listen. They illegally keep their eager-for-schooling daughter out of school on the grounds that she is needed at home to sign for shipments of illegal auto parts that are delivered during the day. Matilda is repeatedly told by Mr. Wormwood that she needs to obey him since "she is little and I am big and there is nothing you can do about it."
Enough time passes before Matilda is allowed to attend school, that by then, she has taught herself to read, has read all the children's books in the local library, where she goes alone each day and is reading Moby Dick when she admitted to the 2nd grade. One look at Miss Honey and you know that Matilda fortunes have taken a turn for the better but meeting the principal Miss Trunchbull makes us fear for the child's safety, for all the children's safety.
Good and smart triumphs in the end but there are frightening twists and turns before this film shows us how.
--
Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety
When we watched "Continental Drift" last week, much of my pleasure came from watching my greatgrandson. Matilda is a bit more realistic movie with real actors instead of drawings. The parents are so close-minded and the principal so filled with hatred of children that the story is not at all realistic, I dearly hope.
We follow Matilda from birth up to the age of second grade. Most parents would notice the signs of extreme intelligence but not Mr. and Mrs. Wormwood. When their baby, barely a toddler, spells out "Matilda" in well-formed letters in her spilled babyfood, they don't notice. When Matilda repeatedly tells them that the car across the street is a pair of FBI agents keeping the cheating, businessman of a dad under surveillance, they don't listen. They illegally keep their eager-for-schooling daughter out of school on the grounds that she is needed at home to sign for shipments of illegal auto parts that are delivered during the day. Matilda is repeatedly told by Mr. Wormwood that she needs to obey him since "she is little and I am big and there is nothing you can do about it."
Enough time passes before Matilda is allowed to attend school, that by then, she has taught herself to read, has read all the children's books in the local library, where she goes alone each day and is reading Moby Dick when she admitted to the 2nd grade. One look at Miss Honey and you know that Matilda fortunes have taken a turn for the better but meeting the principal Miss Trunchbull makes us fear for the child's safety, for all the children's safety.
Good and smart triumphs in the end but there are frightening twists and turns before this film shows us how.
--
Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety
