The BFG
Directed by: Steven Spielberg
Written by: Melissa Mathison - Based on the book by Roald Dahl
Starring: Mark Rylance, Ruby Barnhill, Penelope Wilton, Jemaine Clement, Rebecca Hall, Rafe Spall, Bill Hader, Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, Adam Godley, Michael Adamthwaite, Daniel Bacon, Jonathan Holmes, Chris Gibbs, Paul Moniz de Sa
Adventure/Family/Fantasy - 117 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 28 June 2016
Written by: Melissa Mathison - Based on the book by Roald Dahl
Starring: Mark Rylance, Ruby Barnhill, Penelope Wilton, Jemaine Clement, Rebecca Hall, Rafe Spall, Bill Hader, Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, Adam Godley, Michael Adamthwaite, Daniel Bacon, Jonathan Holmes, Chris Gibbs, Paul Moniz de Sa
Adventure/Family/Fantasy - 117 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 28 June 2016
Roald Dahl disliked the first film adapted from one of his books, 1971’s Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, and we can only guess what he would think of Steven Spielberg’s vision of his famous 1982 young adult novel, The BFG. Working with Walt Disney Pictures for the first time, one of the world’s most acclaimed directors tackles one of the world’s most beloved children’s stories. Taking a break from the historical studies he has focused on these past 20 years, Spielberg returns to his dreams and imagination roots creating a film full of vivid colors and out of this world gargantuan characters, yet The BFG is noticeably void of story. You may leave with an empty feeling wondering how an almost two hour movie is less filling than some hour long cartoons.
Sophie (Ruby Barnhill) is a London orphan with severe insomnia. She acts as her orphanage’s pragmatic caretaker during the night sorting the mail, locking the doors, and shushing off drunks from the street out front. Immediately after noticing a giant hand outside the window, Sophie is whisked away to giant country. Watching the adventure unfold through Sophie’s eyes, the point of view of a child in a strange land, The BFG should appeal to 8-10 year olds the most because the story is a tad on the scarier end of children’s fantasy, as are most Dahl tales.
Sophie (Ruby Barnhill) is a London orphan with severe insomnia. She acts as her orphanage’s pragmatic caretaker during the night sorting the mail, locking the doors, and shushing off drunks from the street out front. Immediately after noticing a giant hand outside the window, Sophie is whisked away to giant country. Watching the adventure unfold through Sophie’s eyes, the point of view of a child in a strange land, The BFG should appeal to 8-10 year olds the most because the story is a tad on the scarier end of children’s fantasy, as are most Dahl tales.
Sophie calms the audience’s fears she will be gobbled up by her captor as her opinion shifts quickly on the man and the situation. Naming him BFG (Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies), shorthand for Big Friendly Giant, it turns out he is actually the runt of the giant clan and is persistently bullied by his nine older brothers who are also carnivorous cannibals. BFG follows a higher moral road and opts for squishy vegetarian fare. However, once Sophie gets a good look at her surroundings and establishes a quick rapport with BFG, the story gradually slows down until it feels as if it hardly moves.
BFG is a dream catcher, dream maker, and then some sort of a dream distributor. He gathers dreams at an ancient tree in the clouds where they swarm haphazardly and insect-like as they drip off of leaves. There are good dreams and bad but the entire enterprise is surprisingly boring. We do not delve into the dreams’ origins or any specific information about them or even why BFG decided to appoint himself dream catcher, molder, and benefactor. Spielberg spends an awful long time focused on BFG’s dream making where I almost felt relief when the nine giant bully brothers show up because at least something is finally happening on screen.
Rylance, working with Spielberg back-to-back after earning a Best Supporting Actor Oscar in Bridge of Spies, is the film’s most interesting cog. BFG and his giant kin look beyond human, but photorealistic as they inhabit the same space of very human Sophie. Their movements, including their facial quirks, are based on actor performances yet they are animated through and through. BFG sports gray hair sprouting perpendicular away from his head and his over-sized ears are specially tuned to hear what he calls the hearts of the lonely back in the human world. He does not have a logical reason as to why he kidnapped Sophie but screenwriter Melissa Mathison, who wrote E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, hints at a combination of loneliness and the recognition of a kindred spirit. BFG’s stated reason of protection does not hold up to scrutiny.
Barnhill as Sophie is one of Disney’s stronger female protagonists; she is not intimidated by someone 20 feet taller than her and never takes ‘no’ for an answer, even though her persistent nagging to accompany BFG everywhere regardless of safety grates on our nerves right up there with my kid’s 83rd time asking “why?” Sophie turns the tables on her elevated friend and provides him with support similar to how Dorothy propped up the cowardly lion on the yellow brick road. A peculiar insult occurs a few times as Sophie points out to BFG how he misuses many words and how some are just made up. It should be obvious to anyone BFG operates on a different mental plane a bit askew from the rest of the humanoids we encounter, so why Mathison and Spielberg make fun of him more than once about it comes off a bit un-Disney which in its contemporary form professes inclusion and understanding concerning those a bit different from you.
Roald Dahl invented an entire gibberish lexicon for BFG, not exactly as far as J.R.R. Tolkien created the Elvish language for Lord of the Rings but similar to how the blokes in A Clockwork Orange spoke made up words where the audience could mostly understand what they were talking about. BFG also provides an uncharacteristically forgettable soundtrack from the usually reliable and steady John Williams and relies way too much on fart jokes; but hey, any time the Queen of England lets one loose in Buckingham Palace, I'm for that. Circling back to Spielberg's Hook (1991) and The Adventures of Tintin (2011) children’s movies, The BFG is a faithful adaptation of Dahl’s work, but is nowhere near the original Willy Wonka or Fantastic Mr. Fox when it comes to the best adaptations. I would expect one of Spielberg’s many histories to bore the audience, but not an immense BFG, which is unfortunately what happens here.
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