Films > Film Reviews
The BFG
18/07/16
2016 marks 100 years since the birth of Roald Dahl, so it’s fitting that one of the giants of cinema, Steven Spielberg, has chosen this year to bring Dahl’s big friendly giant to the screen.
For those that don’t know, this tall tale starts with a very small person called Sophie (Ruby Barnhill), an orphan from London, who whilst awake late one night spots our titular giant (Mark Rylance) sneaking around in an alley through the window of the orphanage. Well, it turns out that those big ears of his aren’t just for wearing massive Ray-Bans, as he’s soon onto our Soph and, realising that he’s been rumbled, grabs the girl and legs it back to Giant Country (apparently somewhere north of Scotland). Long story short, Sophie soon discovers that her giant abductor is not as scary as he seems, particularly when compared to his even-gianterer child eating brethren, and a friendship forms as the unlikely duo team up to stop his towering fam from eating baby buffet whenever they feel like popping over to jolly ol’ blighty. I won’t spoil the ending in case you grew up on a desert island and haven’t read the book, but lets just say that they use the magic of dreams to harness one of the highest powers in the land to help rid England of the evil giants.
The film looks amazing, and the CGI that brings the giants and their world to life is impressive. In particular the BFG himself is a nice balance of 50/50 graphics and Rylance, who acts his size 40 socks off playing the colloquially confused snozzcumber muncher. Movie newb Ruby Barnhill is also impressive as Sophie, but unfortunately both of the main characters, and in particular their initial interaction, is slightly off tone. I’ll explain.
Roald Dahl stories (the Witches, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory etc) work and are loved so well because they always have a believable element of peril in them that could befall the child protagonist. Sure, the bad giants add a hint of this, but at the start of the movie Sophie comes across as bold and precocious, with nothing to fear from the too obviously non-threatening giant. This loses an important element of the story and their friendship, and maybe this is because Spielberg didn’t want to scare younger audience members, or maybe it’s because he’s read the book one too many times and had the version of the BFG that we love at the end of the movie in mind throughout the whole process, but this is the tip of a stylistic iceberg that is lacking throughout the film.
Secondly, there are no in-jokes for adults in this movie. Remember when you took the kids to see Wreck-it-Ralph and sniggered at the subtle Pac Man drug reference, or when you laughed at Toy Story 2 when Buzz saw Jesse for the first time and his wings popped out unexpectedly like a Fisher Price stiffy? Well, there’s none of that. The most you get in the BFG is an oblique reference to the former heads of some 80s superpowers, which only goes as far as to further confuse the chronological context of the movie. As an audience, we expect more than that these days so I’m sorry Steven, but it’s just not quite good enough I’m afraid.
However, at least there’s a bevy of fart jokes in the movie to save the day, and it really is a film for the kids. I suppose. Most of the younger children that were present at the same screening I was at seemed to love it. However, for older kids (like me) and fans of the book, I wouldn’t expect to be completely satisfied, as it never quite captures that Dahl je ne sais quoi whilst it meanders along before arriving at a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it ending. Ultimately, it’s the little things about this giant movie that, sadly, bring it down to size.
6/10