BFG movie review

BFG (2016) 

Director: Steven Spielberg

Cast: Mark Rylance, Rubin Barnhill, Rebecca Hall, Bill Hader, Rafe Spall

Screenplay by: Melissa Mathison

Review by: Zulfi (4/5)

BFG has many things working for it. Listing it out, it has those childish dreams, which they hope to be true and if true, to be dangerous and if dangerous, be harmless. It has a child’s world, which unfolds after midnight with things which they believe to be consisting of huge proportioned humans or monsters. It has a listless imagination, whose extent is the universe. But most of all it has BFG.

            BFG as Sophie (the ten year old orphan from London orphanage, from where the former had abducted her as she saw him) says is the Big Friendly Giant. She can’t sleep until late into the night and believes miracles and sinister things happen at 3 in the early morning as that is the least wandered time zone. As the quintessentially inquisitive child protagonist in this sort of tales, she is a very alert and vivacious kid, who is looking round the corner for some adventure. She breaks the curfew one night in her orphanage wandering the dormitories, when she sees a huge giant who carries some strange trumpet like instrument with him. The giant being aware of her knowledge of his existence takes her to his home, giant country, which he later points out in a map is north of Britain. He says that he is going to keep her with him whole his or her life. But there is no threatening atmosphere here. With BFG, Sophie senses there is no threat to her even before she knows him. Because he is a gentle sort. And when she sees the other giants, a little later, who bully the old, wizened looking BFG, she understands how kind and good he is.

            He talks in a ‘jabberwockiuos’ fashion, all nonsense and floundering with words and misplacing grammatical implements. But as Sophie and BFG get closer during a dream catching sequence, which is his favorite hobby and he stores many of the dreams in a secret room behind waterfalls, she gathers he is such a kid at heart and a warm friend. They roam together in the nights blowing dreams into children’s sleep with his dream trumpet. But he gets disturbed when she loses her blanket among the giants and does the unthinkable task of breaking his disciplinarian code of returning the child to its home. But Sophie gets addicted to his company and resorts to jump from high above so that he will return to catch her, which he does. Seeing his lonely weak position among the giant hierarchy, she resolves to involve the queen of England to help BFG fight the giant menace, leading to a hilarious follow up of scenes.

            Now, Spielberg has been at the root of modern age childish imagination with regard to cinema. He catered to not only the visual appeal of the films through his ET, but also gave a heart. And the best thing about it is that this vision has its heart at the right place. His movies teach children doing the good against all the odds, being brave (producing Star wars franshise along with George Lucas), loving animals (Jurassic park) and being compassionate. Even the child characters like in his AI are so vulnerable and last such a lasting impression on the minds of the viewers. In BFG, he extends his work with the kind hearted title character. He employs the star of his last movie, Bridge of Spies, Mark Rylance. The movie was an above average affair compared to his dynamic works in the past. But Mark Rylance achieved a rare thing in the movie, which is a Russian spy garnering some respect among the American and British audience. He has this rare something, which makes us like him so much. Probably that rare something is his frankness. In BFG, this inherent feature of his sets the tone and spirit for the whole affair. In totality, the relationship between Sophie and him is that of a grandfather and a child. This sort of relationship is one of the best in the world. The child nurtures so well in the kindness and warmth of the old, whose vision of life is wise and their hand so caring with so much of time on it. BFG gives all of this to Sophie. He is scared when he remembers a boy in the past, who had same predicament like Sophie as he brought him to his lair and to his repentance got eaten by the other giants. He doesn’t want this to happen to Sophie. Mark Rylance carries this caring bearings in his body language with loping grace to his gangling personality and with a weak laugh and priceless smile to all her questions.

            He looks so frail when she gets frustrated by his dyslexic speech. He says he can’t help it, but he tries so hard to correct himself before the queen as he doesn’t want Sophie to be understood in a poor light. This sequence is hilarious as is the reverse whizzing drink, which causes ‘belches’ in the opposite way and fires people in all directions. He is a vegetarian eating snozcumbers, if I got that right, while his fellow giants are named after eating human meat (gizzardgulper, childchewer, fleshlumpeater, bloodbottler). Sophie on the other hand is that vivacious little girl who sparkles up the fantasy with her alacrity. If there is one thing Hollywood isn’t short of, it is its list of child actors, who are many and wonderful. After Jungle Book’s Neel Sethi, who had the fiber of resourcefulness and strong nerve in the character of Mowgli, Rubin Barnhill as Sophie has that eagerness of adventure and desperation to help somebody bigger and stronger than her. She completes the other side of the picture which was so well painted by BFG.

            All in all, the story has that imaginative and adventurous spirit, which generally characterizes many of Roald Dahl’s children stories. Though he even tends towards the dark and macabre side, which is inherent in all of his adult tales, this is a jovial take compared to Willy Wonka. Probably the late Melissa Mathison, writer of ET, made it so joyous along with Spielberg, but the film is lucid and pure in its detail and inventive and accurate in its visual appeal. Motion capturing is probably the best of date with Rylance’s expressions looking so spot on and relevant to BFG’s nature. And for once I didn’t even lament that this was made in 3D. Congrats to the kids.