The Witches (2020)
This adaptation from acclaimed director Robert Zemeckis captures the dark-but-family-friendly fantasy tone of Roald Dahl’s classic children’s novel, and is carried by strong performances from Octavia Spencer as the grandmother and Anne Hathaway as the delightfully OTT Grand High Witch.
Premise: When an orphaned boy (Jahzir Kadeem Bruno) and his grandmother (Octavia Spencer) visit an opulent hotel in 1960’s Alabama, the last thing they expect to find is a convention of witches led by the Grand High Witch (Anne Hathaway) herself.
Review:
There is a probably a core group of film fans for whom the 1990 version of The Witches holds a special place in their hearts, but I am not one of them. While I appreciate Anjelica Huston’s performance in that version and admire her impressive prosthetic make-up, the cop-out ending ruined the entire film for me (and Roald Dahl himself called that film version “utterly appalling” because of the way it changed the book’s ending). Thankfully, despite a number of cosmetic changes, the 2020 version of The Witches keeps the novel’s original ending, and as a result, feels far more in keeping with the dark fantasy tone of Dahl’s work.
The cosmetic changes that I refer to are all ones which, while deviations from the novel, don’t really affect the book’s tone or content significantly. Obviously, the most obvious change is the decision to relocate the story’s setting from 1980’s England to 1960’s Alabama, and to change the grandmother character from being a retired Norwegian witch hunter to a healer from the Deep South. But these changes add a different flavour and palette to the story, rather than fundamentally altering the central themes of the book. In fact, while it will no doubt pass over younger children’s heads, the subtle depictions of institutionalised racism and white privilege (the boy and his grandmother are the only black guests in the luxury hotel, and even they were only admitted due to special circumstances) actually tie in quite well to the story’s themes, such as the witches’ sense of entitlement and their ingrained hatred of all children.
“…the film is stolen by Anne Hathaway’s delightfully OTT performance…”
Visually, the film is sumptuous to look at, with director Robert Zemeckis and cinematographer Don Burgess really showing off the vibrant colours of the period, and the grand opulence of the luxury hotel. The film itself is saturated in primary colours, lending the movie a heightened reality feel that suites the dark fantasy. This is carried through from the sets to the costumes, which really pop from the screen.
And the same could be said for the performances – this is the heightened reality of a contemporary fairy tale, and the performances match that tone. Octavia Spencer is kindly, protective and a constant reassuring presence for the unnamed lead character, while Stanley Tucci is clearly having fun as the uptight hotel manager. But the film is stolen by Anne Hathaway’s delightfully OTT performance as the Grand High Witch, who is relishing the opportunity to chew up the scenery (almost literally in some scenes). Be warned though, although her performance is a darkly comic one, very young children may find her CGI-enhanced transformation into her true witch form a little too intense.
“…the film is surprisingly faithful to the tone of the book…”
Co-written by the modern master of dark fantasy Guillermo del Toro, there is a lot to enjoy in this adaptation, and the fact that it breezes along in a brisk 105 minutes means it never loses momentum (unlike Steven Spielberg’s 2016 adaptation of The BFG, which I felt plodded along through its uneventful middle act). I was personally a little disappointed that the “mouse tail” scene was omitted from this version (as it was a scene that really stuck with me as a child reading the novel), but it’s a minor quibble, and overall, the film is surprisingly faithful to the tone of the book, including its poignant ending.
The modern CGI of course means that the second half of the film can be rendered very impressively (I’m avoiding specifics, in case you haven’t read the book and don’t yet know what happens in the second half of the story), with some magical moments played for laughs, and others definitely played for chills (and some played for both, which really is the heart of Roald Dahl’s work).
“…mixes the chills with moments of humour, cathartic release & childlike wonder…”
Overall, while the intensity of some of the CGI transformations may be a little too intense for very young viewers, this is the kind of dark family fantasy that is more likely to scare children in a good way, mixing the chills with moments of humour, cathartic release, and childlike wonder. A perfectly-timed Halloween treat for families looking for some PG-rated scares.
