every once in a while , when an exceptional family film comes along , i will attempt to champion it by challenging parents to put their money where their mouths have been ; with all the hubbub over the lack of films suitable for children , it is remarkable how many non-disney films disappear in a couple of weeks . 
now i see that in so doing , i have unfairly ghettoized these films . 
so i am issuing my challenge not just to parents , but to anyone who wants to support smart , funny , energetic film-making : see matilda . 
see it in a theater , rather than shrugging and waiting for it on video . 
see the best film i have seen in 1996 . 
not the best children's film . . . the 
best film . 
period . 
based on a story by roald dahl , it tells of young matilda wormwood ( mara wilson ) , an extraordinarily bright girl whose great misfortune it is to have a pair of deeply stupid parents : harry ( danny devito ) , a crooked used car salesman ; and zinnia ( rhea perlman ) , a simple-minded bingo addict . 
the wormwoods barely notice matilda exists , and when they do , it is only to scold her for spending too much time reading books . 
when they finally do send her to school , it is to crunchem hall , a bleak place run by cruel , child-hating miss agatha trunchbull ( pam ferris ) . 
but things begin to look up for matilda when she discovers a sympathetic teacher , miss honey ( embeth davidtz ) , who nurtures her natural inquisitiveness . 
matilda also discovers another special talent -- the ability to move things with her mind -- which allows her to help herself and miss honey to overcome miss trunchbull's cruelty . 
it was this spring's james and the giant peach which inspired me to note that the best and most lasting tales for children tended to have more than a hint of darkness to them , and you can bet that the roald dahl responsible for the gleeful ghoulishness of james and willy wonka and the chocolate factory has more of the same in store with matilda . 
and just as james benefited from the dark sensibilities of henry selick and tim burton , matilda soars on the cock-eyed direction of danny devito . 
devito made black humor a key element in throw momma from the train and the war of the roses , and he contributes some memorable images . 
in one scene , an unfortunate girl is made an example of by miss trunchbull when she is picked up by her pig-tails and flung through the air like a throwing hammer ; later , an overweight boy is forced to eat an entire massive cake after he is caught stealing a dessert . 
matilda is just twisted enough to be a perfect fairy tale . 
it is also characteristic of the best children's tales that they manage to teach lessons in such a way that children almost don't realize that they are learning them . 
there is a hilarious moment when matilda's television-addicted father snatches away the book she is reading ( in a wicked joke , he thinks _moby dick_ is pornographic ) and forces her to watch an inane game show ( hosted by jon lovitz ) in which contestants are smeared with adhesive and placed in a booth filled with cash blowing around . 
matilda is a story which promotes the value of intellectual curiosity over passive entertainment , and it does so while poking holes in that most frustrating of notions for a child -- that because " i'm big and you're little , i'm right and you're wrong . " 
more specifically , it has as its heroine an intelligent , self-confident girl who struggles successfully against other people's notions of how she should behave . 
it is no coincidence that matilda was co-written by robin swicord , who contributed the superb recent adaptation of little women . 
finally , matilda has that quality i find rarest and most treasured in family entertainment : it is family entertainment in the truest sense of the word . 
devito knows enough to make matilda fast-paced and appealing to children , taking a deliciously nasty performance by pam ferris as miss trunchbull and making it the focal point of some priceless physical comedy , including a great chase through her dark house . 
the child actors are winning but never obnoxiously adorable , with mara wilson making matilda a clever and extremely likeable character . 
but there are also many , many delights for adults , including my favorite scene in which matilda uses her powers to frighten miss trunchbull by having chalk write on a chalkboard by itself while matilda's classmates recite in sing-song fashion ; there is also a deadpan cameo by paul reubens as an fbi agent staking out matilda's father . 
i can't imagine anyone of any age leaving matilda feeling as though his or her intelligence had been insulted . 
matilda is a film which left me glowing with good feeling . 
i will see it again , and years from now i will watch it with my children . 
and now i will stop , because somewhere near you matilda is about to begin , and there is a seat in that theater you should be in , if you have a child or ever were a child . 
