'The BFG' Review

The BFG is an adaptation of the classic children's book The BFG written by Roald Dahl about a Big Friendly Giant (what BFG stands for) who frolics about at night collecting dreams from a magical tree and distributing them to the people of the world. One night, he accidentally catches the attention of a young orphan girl Sophie and kidnaps her to prevent her from blabbering on about a giant in the streets of London, fortunately she was taken by BFG as he's a kindred spirit and all of the other giants are brutish man-eating cannibals. The two quickly become friends and must devise a way to get rid of the villainous giants so that the BFG may carry out his life in serenity. 

That's the plot of The BFG in a nutshell, seems simple right? Well it is quite simple and I summarized it here because I don't feel the marketing material has done the best job of representing what the film is about, something reflected in The BFG's tragic abysmal box office performance last weekend. 

The one of a kind director Steven Spielberg directs the flick and teams with some of his favorite collaborators over the years including the brilliant composer John Williams who has scored a number of Spielberg's films, screenwriter Melissa Mathison who wrote the Spielberg classic E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, and actor Mark Rylance who won an Oscar this year as a result of his work with Spielberg on last year's Bridge Of Spies and those names alone were enough to convince me to see The BFG given I had never heard of the story or read the book before. Spielberg elevates the source material of The BFG to heights I don't believe it could reach on the story's own merit creating an immersive world for families to explore that's both straightforward and goodnatured. 

Spielberg and cinematographer Januz Kaminski have plenty of fun depicting the giants as they takes ordinary objects and makes them miniature decor for the BFG and the Spielberg fills the gaps of logic as to why the BFG has never been discovered with simple visual imagery, lingering on subtle moments such as the water washing away the BFG's footprint in the sand or the BFG disguising himself to blend in with the darkness as he embarks at night. Spielberg's vision is greatly assisted by the masterful visual effects work as Spielberg once again brings feelings of wonderment and awe with the look of the "dreams" and Giant Country. 

There were moments when I couldn't decipher which set pieces were rendered by visual effects artists or tangibly there. For example, the streets of London were either animated to look like London or constructed to appear as a slight caricature of London. To describe the visual effects, I would have to say that the character design is a happy medium to the marvelous realism of this year's The Jungle Book and the somewhat cartoonish yet real video game aesthetic seen to portray the orcs in this year's Warcraft. 

That may sound a bit strange, but it works as the the BFG actually looks like the splitting image of Mark Rylance with some exaggerated features, the cartoonish demeanor I was referring to. The other mean spirited giants also get the same treatment and certainly look menacing but are all flat one dimensional "bad guys", they all have generic malevolent names but beyond that just bully the BFG so don't be surprised if I don't bring them up again as they weren't particularly memorable antagonists but a nice fit for a simple children's story. And on that note, the film's greatest weakness is it's story. 

The screenplay penned by Melissa Mathison probably wasn't altered after she unfortunately lost her battle with cancer last year and I don't think Spielberg was in the wrong for choosing to not make alterations to the script and let her last work ring on, but on that same note I'm unsure that this was her finished product as there's a few unnecessary sequences that make the film drag on and seem a tad boring. 

The film also has the shortest anti-climactic ending where everything is conveniently resolved in a matter of ten minutes. While there are moments in Mathison's script that evoke warm feelings, I don't believe it measures up to her previous work on E.T. I'm unsure if the lackluster story is a result of the source material itself, given I've never read it, or lies in Spielberg's compulsion to honor both Roald Dahl and Mathison's work. Elsewhere, the film features a new score from composer John Williams, a rare treat these days, and I can say it does a great job instilling feelings of awe and wonderment as Sophie and the audience are introduced to Giant Country. 

The sense of awe is only intensified by the film's cast lead by child actor Ruby Barnhill as the spunky orphan Sophie and Mark Rylance as The Big Friendly Giant. Barnhill delivers a wonderful child performance she had to act opposite plenty of green screens to bring the giants to life and she makes the world and magic that much more convincing. 

Rylance brings a lovable demeanor and gravitas to the BFG through voice work and motion capture that's quite different from his award winning role in Bridge of Spies and breaks out of what I was expecting to be derivative characteristics he would carry forth to all his roles. Rylance nails the "Giant Speak" and mannerisms you would expect from an excessively large humanoid and thanks to motion capture ensures his subtle facial expressions are carried forth to inject heart into the large creature. At it's core the film succeeds thanks to the unbelievably charming kindred friendship between Rylance and Barnhill. I was amazed at how well the young actress acted opposite an Academy Award winner and can't wait to see what projects she will take part in next! 

There's not too much of a cast in the film though with supporting players introduced in the final act including Penelope Wilton as the Queen, Rebecca Hall and Rafe Spall as Mary and Mr. Tibbs, respective servants to her Majesty. As I said earlier, the other giants aren't particularly worth mentioning as they're purely one-dimensional bullies, but Jermaine Clement's Fleshlumpeater is the best of the bunch. 

When it comes down to it though, The BFG is technically astounding, but fails to captivate interest in its lackadaisical story. The BFG may not be Spielberg's greatest work, but it's charming worthwhile family friendly entertainment that's hard to come by these days that I think children will love and adults will be pleasantly surprised by thanks to gorgeous visual imagery, fantastic direction, a magical score, and some truly wonderful performances. 

Film Assessment: B-