The costumes, the atmosphere, the mixture of drama and tragic romance are seductive in high measure. but , for an Orthodox Christian like me, "Matilda"remains, more than a film, a terrible lie . sure, the term is not soft, but it represents a pure blasphemy. not only for the different image of a saint martyr. but for the desire of director to give a kitsch fairy tale, in impressive package/clothes, about a poor man under the hard times. "Matilda" propose an alternative story about Saint Nicholas II Romanov. and, if you see it as fiction, it works in some measure ( sure, if the expectations are low ). as portrait of the Tsar, it is a huge and impolite and absurde lie. but the success has not moral. and the ambition to propose something real strong, at the border of sacrilege, it is not exactly a surprise. because the soap operas ( "Matilda" is a slice from that genre ) are easy shows especially for the silly absurd stories. unfurnatelly, it is a real bad film.
