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One of many Rauld Dahl books that have been adapted to a visual medium, Matilda is a story about the importance of reading. Although entertaining when observed from a child's point of view, the film is severely flawed with Matilda's development of psychic powers overshadowing and somewhat negating her character development and an overt use of cartoon violence. It's hard to determine the accuracy of this movie to the original text without actually reading it, but the narrative that moves the story seems to be laced with Dahl's simplistic style of prose. The film does benefit from the direction of Taxi alum Danny DeVito, who also served as both the narrator and Matilda's father, who is no stranger to offbeat stories, directing films such as Death to Smoochy and War of the Roses. While amusing, the area this film suffers the most is in its plot. Matilda is the story of a little girl suffering from child abuse, which take the form of mental abuse (i.e. not being allowed to read books) rather than physical. She eventually discovers that she has psychic powers and uses them to take revenge on her abusers, her school principal and, to a lesser degree, her parents.
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