MATILDA (44)

Directed by: Danny deVito

Starring: Mara Wilson, Danny deVito, Pam Ferris

The Pitch: A book-loving, super-intelligent little girl finds she has telekinetic powers, using them to deal with her trashy family and ogre of a headmistress.

Theo Sez: A broad, riotous satire that turns into a kiddie variation on CARRIE but remains among the best live-action children's films of recent years (not particularly high praise). It's rather overweighted by the grotesque figure of Ferris's monstrous headmistress, though in fact everything is deliberately caricatural and overstated - even the admirable pro-literacy message seems to be laid on a little thick - and often very funny in director deVito's usual garish, hyperactive style (zooms into close-ups of eyes, that kind of thing). The theme may be par for the course for juvenile fare - basically, that kids are smarter than the adults around them - but for once it doesn't feel like the movie is pandering to its young audience, because it adds the rarely-acknowledged proviso that brains mean less than nothing in a harsh, cynical world based solely on brute strength and low blows, however vulgar or unsubtle. The film is none too subtle itself but it's mostly fun, sharp and rambunctious, if a little strident towards the end.