From E.T. to Close Encounters to A.I., Steven Spielberg has been one of the few directors that is able to capture that rare combination of realism and a sense of whimsy. That combination is once again on display in The BFG, but somehow Spielberg is working with a story that doesn’t entirely bring his typical elements together as successfully as he would like.
The movie takes place in London and it centers around a young orphaned girl named Sophie (Ruby Barnhill) who’s awakened one night by a gigantic, mysterious presence outside her window that swoops her up and takes her away to his world. This presence is called a Big Friendly Giant, or BFG for short. Mark Rylance plays the BFG and his role is completely performance-capture.
Once the BFG brings Sophie to his world known as Giant Country, she discovers that he is part of a race of giants. It isn’t long, though, before they both find out that their world is being threatened by other giants who go by names such as Fleshlumpeater, Bloodbottler, and Bonecruncher. Why these giants look like rejected concepts from Warcraft is anyone’s guess.
The Fleshlumpeater is the defacto leader of the group and basically bullies the BFG and Sophie. The BFG transports Sophie back to London to inform the queen of this threat and they hope to mobilize a resistance of sorts against the other giants. Once the climatic battle takes place, you had hoped for better than the finished result.
The BFG does tell Sophie that he is a dream catcher by profession and we do get some impressive images that show Spielberg’s flair for whimsy when the dreams are kept in bottles. Sort of like a fantastical version of Inception.
The BFG is based on a children’s book by Roald Dahl whose adaptations also include Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and James and the Giant Peach. The late screenwriter Melissa Matheson who also penned E.T. with Spielberg does her best to create the magical world Dahl and Spielberg intended, but the movie never reaches up to its full potential other than providing a beautiful, convincing world.
The movie doesn’t craft any real memorable characters or a story that doesn’t have as much resonance as it should. Furthermore, I think some of the mechanics introduced in the screenplay might’ve gotten in the way of Spielberg’s ambitions.
This is nowhere near in the league of E.T., Jurassic Park or even Minority Report. There are some strange contradictions with this film. The BFG is not a successful movie, but it is visually inspired. If only its aspirations were as enormous as its hero.
Grade: B-
(Rated PG for action/peril, some scary moments and brief rude humor.)
This review is dedicated to the memory of Dee Frazier.
