Does anyone else really love Matilda?
Disclaimer: I'm not an english native, so if you think that the following is just a long non-stoping constant nonsense, you're probably right, but I have no way to tell, so I'm sorry for both of us.
I know it's a childish movie by all intention but I just love it, maybe it's exactly that what makes it so amazing, it's a kids movie that makes you feel like a kid, not just by literally telling the story from the point of view of an adult trapped inside the body of a little girl, but because somehow it manages to feel so real. By that I don't mean that such an amazing antagonist as Tronchbull is a realistic one (because she isn't) but she represents the way a child feel about a lot of adults, and that's what makes her so perfect, is a totally real villain that doesn't rely on realism to make us fear her, let's face it, taking a girl by her braids and throwing her as far as possible it's not the most scary thing you'll see in a movie, but you can empathize with Matilda by the fact that you feel she could be next and there would be a lot of pain without any consequences for Tronchbull.
The movie plays a lot with that, the sensation that adults can do whatever they want without having to face the punishments kid suffer over the most ridiculous things (like eating a pair on M&M's in the presence of a grown-up). That is, indeed, the whole plot, a girl trying to achieve fairness by making use of a bigger (sometimes magical) power.
In the beginning of the movie we see how Matilda feels about his dad's business, she (as any responsable adult would) feels horrified when her father makes a living out of scamming and lying with no visible consequences, and, when her father accidentally teaches her that when a person (not only a child) misbehaves they should be punished she tries so hard to make her dad suffer through physical pain, and she does, but soon she feels that such a simple punishment can't make her dad regret for all the bad things he has done, and she's about to know why when she meets the other adult that doesn't know how to handle power.
Tronchbull is, unlike Harry, not made for us to think she's a normal human being, Harry is just a lazy, stupid egocentric man that doesn't know what he's getting into. Tronchbull, on the other hand, is the most weird and twisted analogy you can think of Hitler, a grown woman with a lot of power that she uses to make others suffer, she's perfectly aware of her position and doesn't follow a clear moral pattern (other than hating children) because she doesn't need to because she's totally convinced she's doing the right thing because people made her think so. She's any child worst nightmare and she's happy with it, because of the comfort being in a powerful position carries, so, to punish her, a bigger power is necessary.
That's when Matilda's magical powers get in the game, they're a pretty common fantasy for a child and, combined with their imagination, it's a tool for everything. But let's not forget that Matilda has still that selfless innocence of a child, she doesn't want everything to go on her favour just so she can relax and see the world fall apart, she wants to make things fair, and that's, in her mind, make Harry and Tronchbull pay for what they've done wrong.
When Matilda thinks of punishing Tronchbull she doesn't even think of going through physical pain, not because she thinks that'd be too cruel or sadistic, but because she literally thinks Tronchbull is unable to feel pain, for her, Tronchbull is a monster that gets happiness from making little kids suffer, like Bruce; instead, she wants to make her suffer in a proper way for what she does to children, she wants to make her feel as vulnerable as any kid feels in her presence, and she achieves that through an imaginative use of her powers (it's obvious she couldn't have done that by conventional methods), she's living a dream, basically.
At the end of the movie we see a lot of things happening, Tronchbull faces everything she has ever feared at the same time, so does Harry, who has to run away from authorities because he's finally about to get punished for his actions in an intended way (kind of Dantesque if you think about it), and Matilda gets to live with her new mom: Ms Honey.
Ms Honey is the exact opposite of Matilda, she's a child on the inside and an adult on the outside, she lost her childhood due to Tronchbull's mistreats and doesn't get to enjoy it back til the end of the movie, when the roles get to their proper way, Matilda being the child and Ms Honey being the adult.
In conclusion, this is how you make a movie for adults and kids and the same time.
