“Madeline” is a film intended for children but a child or anyone requires a movie that offers them something; this movie doesn’t really do anything and will simply fade far away from one’s memory soon after the experience is over so I didn’t waste any time before writing this. Its attempts at humour are like they were conceived by someone with no sense of it.

In this film, a group of young girls living in a school run by Miss Clavel (Frances McDormand “Almost Famous”) contains the adventurous Madeline (Hatty Jones). It’s all about a couple of little misadventures that she has and none of them are in the slightest bit amusing or exciting.

The girls in this film are appalling as they all work on exactly the same tone and have no individuality whatsoever. I’ve seen plenty of child performers who were vastly superior to Hatty Jones as Madeline here; she has a cheeky smile as she delivers insanely boring lines. The young Spanish boy in the film is equally poor. Frances McDormand is slightly tolerable as Miss Clavel but she is given virtually nothing to do. Nigel Hawthorne (“Demolition Man”, “Tarzan”) seems somewhat good but again is given nothing to do.

“Madeline” is a movie where the only form is praising is by commenting on how it isn’t awful and it won’t stick in your mind. Young girls are going to find it hard to enjoy the girls in this film because they are so one-dimensional and everybody is going to be sat there without smiling. One of the punch-lines in this film is Miss Clavel waking up and repeatedly saying about how something is wrong; if you’re not in hysterics, you’re not alone. The very least I thought this movie would achieve is having young girls satisfied but they won’t be.