But both versions of “Matilda the Musical” lose sight of the original spikiness of Dahl’s book (something captured horribly well in Danny DeVito’s 1998 live-action film adaptation) in favor of a cleaner, more harmonized portrait that puts forward catchy and clever songs (there’s no doubting Minchin) in the place of more complex reckonings with education, revolution, cruelty, and love that are just waiting to be dusted off the page. The new film is as faithful as can be to the stage musical, with performances bursting with earnest energy and holding peerless faith in that clever little girl. It has great strengths and does use Dahl’s work as a blueprint, but it fundamentally has a different heart, one that now beats brightly in “Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical,” a film title that feels as paradoxical as the horrific Miss Trunchbull enjoying a delicious little slice of sugary-sweet private chocolate cake, particularly after you confront just how un-Matilda this version of “Matilda” really is. The story somewhat changed in 2010 with the incredible hit that was “Matilda the Musical,” written by Dennis Kelly and Tim Minchin and commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company - a stage musical that continues to sell out and steal the hearts of enormous audiences, even over a decade after its debut. That level of trust in children is rare, and what Dahl’s imagination gave the world wasn’t meant to last forever. ‘Passages’ Teaser: A Brutal Love Triangle Unfolds in Ira Sachs’ Sundance Hit It was exciting - and it felt true, in the same way that kids barely tall enough to reach the counter would always assure cinema ushers they were definitely, definitely old enough for this horror movie that was in development when they were in diapers. This was the world written by Road Dahl, the unsentimental and exceptional children’s author who always placed greater trust in young minds to handle dark humor than most other storytellers. Her world is a fantasy and a horror at once, trapped by cruel parents and misunderstood by a tyrannical headmistress at her school (Crunchem Hall) and buoyed by her freakishly powerful brain. She is clever - stupidly clever - and kind, and can also make use of psychokinetic powers whenever she needs to.

It’s been a widely accepted fact since 1988 that Matilda Wormwood is not a normal girl. Netflix releases the film in select theaters on Friday, December 9. Editor’s note: This review was originally published at the 2022 London Film Festival.

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