AllMovie

Capturing movie lover's hearts with undeniably adorable performances in such features as Mrs. Doubtfire and Matilda (1996), young starlet Mara Wilson seemed poised to take Hollywood by storm. Though she was seemingly born to essay the role of author Roald Dahl's telekinetic youngster Matilda in the feature of the same name, Wilson remained curiously absent from the screen following her role in the 2000 family film Thomas and the Magic Railroad. A Los Angeles native who got her start onscreen with the 1993 comedy Mrs. Doubtfire, the role ultimately found Wilson catching the eye of filmmaker John Hughes and cast in his 1994 remake Miracle on 34th Street. Though the film paled in comparison to the original classic and was quickly lost in the shuffle, the quality of her performance was undeniable, and it was only two short years before she took the lead in the charming family comedy Matilda. A quirky adaptation of the classic Dahl tale, the film captured the tone of the book spot-on, thanks in no small part to Wilson's memorable performance. Due to the fact that follow-up roles in A Simple Wish (1997) and Thomas and the Magic Railroad succeeded in charming audiences as never before, her subsequent absence from the screen remained all the more curious.