Review 384: The BFG

The BFG is a wonderfully enchanting family film that reminds us what it’s like to see the world through a child’s eyes.  All of this makes a worthy adaptation of Roald Dahl's original book as well as the latest example of why Steven Spielberg is a master of storytelling for all ages.

Based on the book The BFG by Roald Dahl, Sophie (Ruby Barnhill) is a 10 year old girl living at an orphanage in London, England. One night, at what she calls the "witching hour" she spots a giant outside her bedroom in the dark London streets. The giant then proceeds to kidnap her and whisks her back to Giant Country. Although she's scared at first, Sophie soon realises that giant, also known as The BFG (Mark Rylance) is actually quite gentle and kind and that he catches dreams and

The film’s screenplay by the late Melissa Mathieson, who also wrote E.T., is wonderful and stays true to the original Roald Dahl book. As someone who read the book when I was a child, this was really pleasing and emotionally satisfying to see something from my childhood done justice on the Big Screen, especially if it was being done by one of my all time favourite directors.
Apart from staying true to the book, The BFG feels like a spiritual sequel to E.T. Both feature such a beautiful and touching friendship between two unlikely Beans...  I'm sorry Beings. The friendship between Sophie and The BFG is the driving force behind this film, the emotional core

Steven Spielberg's direction is precise and sensitive; his trademark sense of wonder infused in every scene. The cinematography is gorgeous and captures the beauty of Giant Country and England, the production design is outstanding (Giant Country and The BFG's cave, in particular, are truly sites to behold). I also like the sense of the England setting, we know it's set in the past but it's never specified when. The costumes are superb, the score by John Williams is magnificent, the scenery is breathtaking, the special effects are beautiful, the Giants look equally conniving & scary as they are spectacular, the pacing is excellent: the film moves at a fairly brisk pace yet your lulled into the Giant country and gripped at the same time, because Spielberg covers each story and character detail with expert precision we constantly want to see what happens next and the ending has a lovely sense of poignancy and is emotionally satisfying.

The acting is tremendous, with the standouts being Mark Rylance and Ruby Barnhill as Sophie and The BFG respectively.
Mark Rylance embodies The BFG. He's a giant, but he's not like other giants, he's gentle, kind, almost a pacifist. Because of this, he has created a bit of a shell around himself and lets the other giants bully him and he won't fight back.
He also has this incredible amount of knowledge but only knows how to use it in simplified ways, he hasn't been taught how to use it and in meeting Sophie, he becomes a lot braver and gathers a deeper understanding of the world as a whole. He's almost human in his behaviour.

Ruby Barnhill is a natural as Sophie, she lives this part. A wonderful example of a sturdy and very imaginative little girl whose has had to fend for herself most of her life and in meeting The BFG finds a sole mate and grows up a bit as well as getting a broader understanding of the world in a spiritual sense.

Penelope Wilton is magnificently wonderful as Queen Elizabeth II, her presence alone sells this performance. She brings authority and 

Rebecca Hall is also a wonderful presence as Mary, the Queen's maid who also acts as a Mother figure to Sophie

Jemaine Clement & Bill Hader are also appropriately menacing as well silly but fun as the two lead Giants the Fleshlumpeater and the Bloodbottler. Delightfully and effectively playing through motion capture two grotesque characters who are purely bad for the sake of being bad as well as being ignorant as hell.

4/5.

The Anonymous Critic.