The Whitches (2020) A children’s film unfortunately without double reading for adults

After a car accident, a boy is orphaned and is adopted by his grandmother (Octavia Spencer). To change the scene, the grandmother decides to spend a time with the child in a luxury hotel where a congress of witches who detests children at the beginning of the 60s is held.

The Witches is the second adaptation of the homonymous novel by Roald Dahl, and not the only one where the writer takes children (and their parents) as targets of ironies and violence. In this case, the anecdote is quite minimal, since the boy and a friend are victims of a spell and then they will try to disrupt the secret coven with the help of the grandmother, who knows the world of witches.

Unlike many animated films that admit a child and an adult reading, in this comedy everything is hopelessly childish and plain, with many digital effects absent in the first version. The leader of the witches is an unleashed Anne Hathaway (fearsome only in some moments) and perhaps the best thing about this Robert Zemeckis film is the initial realistic section when the depressed orphan begins to live with his grandmother. When you see them heading to such a hotel, an element of tension appears because one wonders if they would admit two African Americans at that time, but the script uchronically resolves that they would.

The morale? Resilience, perseverance, courage and a love that goes beyond appearances.