‘Justice, morality and triumph’: why Matilda is my feelgood movie
The latest in our series of writers picking their most meaningful comfort watches is a tribute to the inspiring power of the 1996 Roald Dahl adaptation
When I think about what makes me feel good, it isn’t fantasy or escapism; it’s justice, morality and triumph – sizing up to a bully bigger than you and prevailing against the odds. I never fail to be charmed by the story of an underdog, someone who shouldn’t win but finds a way through resilience, determination or sometimes a genius loophole and a little bit of magic, and no film hits those attributes harder for me than Danny DeVito’s Matilda.
The zany adaptation of Roald Dahl’s 1988 children’s novel came out in cinemas in December 1996, four months after I came into the world. The film, set (unlike the supremely British source text) in a leopard-print-clad edition of suburban California, focuses on the titular character (played by Mara Wilson), who grows up unseen and unheard by her grifter, TV-obsessed parents, Harry and Zinnia Wormwood, played by DeVito and his then-wife Rhea Perlman.
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