The BFG review: “Pure Spielberg magic…”

The BFG review: A perfect movie for younger audiences as Spielberg returns to his roots for perhaps his best family movie for years.

The BFG may have divided Cannes audiences, but we loved this latest family adventure from Steven Spielberg. 

In the 1980s Steven Spielberg screened a film at the Cannes Film Festival that would go on to become one of his beloved. The year was 1982, a year when crowds saw a movie named E.T. The Extra Terrestrial for the very first time. Twenty four years later, perhaps the world’s most famous filmmaker returned to the south of France with a film which not only shared that movie’s screenwriter, the late Melissa Mathison, but also its charm, heart and pure Spielberg movie magic – his adaptation of the Roald Dahl children’s book, The BFG.

The story is set in a modern London where insomniac orphan Sophie (Ruby Barnhill) lays awake at night reading the works of Charles Dickens, and sorts the mail whilst the rest of the inhabitants of the orphanage lie sleeping. One night, awoken by the stumbling drunks leaving the pub next door, Sophie encounters something extremely tall lurking in the shadows opposite her balcony window.

That something is our title character, the 24-feet tall Big Friendly Giant (here played via motion capture by Oscar-winner Mark Rylance). Fearful that the young girl may talk of his existence, The BFG whisks Sophie away to Giant Country – a land far, far away (though probably somewhere a few miles off the Outer Hebredes). Initially scared of her captor, Sophie gradually warms to the dim-witted, bumbling enormous being and his endearing charm, a feeling that is altogether mutual. However, not all giants are friendly, as Sophie soon realises. When the other giants of Giant County track the young child down to the BFG’s home, the friendly one does everything he can to protect her from the unwanted attention of Bloodbottler (Bill Hader), FelshlumpEater (Jermaine Clement) and co. The two form a quick plan; to return to England and alert the Queen, who must be warned of the precarious giant situation.

The BFG marks Spielberg’s first fantastical family movie since Hook (we’re not counting Jurassic Park), and after recent comments that the director isn’t as much of a fan of his Peter Pan flick (and its disappointment both critically and commercially back in 1991) – though I’m particularly fond of that movie too, you can see why he changed his approach in the 25 years that have followed. The BFG harks back to his work from the 80s, which works really rather well because this was the decade in which the Roald Dahl book was first published.

While the film doesn’t provoke the raw emotion or take us to the dizzy marvellous heights that E.T. may have achieved, it still provides all of the magic and the charm, and a great character in Rylance’s title role. His BFG is superbly written, performed and animated, and the young Barnhill is also extremely strong in her first major film role as Sophie. It’s also great to see the likes of Penelope Wilton (who plays our current Queen) and Rafe Spall popping up briefly in the final reel too; two characters who exist in a world where ‘Boris’ is the Prime Minister and Nancy his first lady to Ronnie’s POTUS (another hilarious 80s reference). There’s also some great voice work from the likes of Bill Hader and Jermaine Clement as the very unfriendly giants that doze in the fields outside of the BFG’s home.

I’ve already heard critics saying that the story drags and the special effects are shoddy, but I disagree. The CGI is absolutely fine, and I though that it was perfectly paced all of the way through. There are some wonderful sequences scattered throughout – a superb extended sequence involving the bad giants hunting for Sophie in the BFG’s abode, and all of the stuff in Buckingham Palace (including farting jokes that involve our monarch). Those looking for tense action and other Speilberg-ian traits however, may be let down. It does lack the tension that we may have come to expect, as well as the gushing raw emotion, but it is a fine adaptation of the source material, and perfect for its target audience.

The BFG is definitely the director’s best family film for many years and a hugely enjoyable event movie. For some, the holidays won’t belong to superheroes or talking animals – it’ll belong to a 24-foot big friendly giant.

The BFG review by Paul Heath, May 2016.

The BFG will be released in UK cinemas on the 22nd July 2016.