The BFG

Steven Spielberg’s The BFG is the film adaptation of one of Roald Dahl’s most beloved children’s books. The story follows a little girl called Sophie as a Big Friendly Giant kidnaps her – a giant who, unlike his much larger ilk, refuses to eat “human beans”. But wait… if the BFG is the smallest of the giants then why is he called the Big Friendly Gian-- never mind! Given its source material, the audience going into this film will have a certain idea of what its feel should be.

Before going into the review itself, there is a brief tangent its writer would like to mention, however trivial it may be. The opening title graphics in the film are a cheap 2-D font with a blue-and-yellow gradient. This seems unimpressive when they have perfectly pretty CGI title graphics in the trailer. It didn’t need great attention drawn to it like musical accompaniment or anything, at least not for the film itself. It’s a shame it wasn’t used.

Character designs are accurate to the designs in the book or its illustrations, specifically for Sophie (Ruby Barnhill) and the BFG (Mark Rylance). To Barnhill’s credit she tries to emote with her expressions of surprise and wide eyes, but the expressions mostly blend together and there is room for improvement in her physical or vocal deliveries given some more direction. Rylance’s portrayal of the loveable gobblefunk-speaking character is on point, with his vocal deliveries denoting a kindly yet simple creature. Jamaine Clement plays the voice of the Fleshlumpeater, the largest of the antagonistic giants, whose scowling face and smooth regional accent really paints the character as a kind of bully. None of the giants have booming voices to very much of an extent, which is not bad in terms of mood but it may not be what some would realistically expect. The third act sees Penelope Wilton as Queen Elizabeth II – it seems rather fitting that the actor who played the Prime Minister in Doctor Who should play the Queen in this. Rafe Spall portrays Mr. Tibbs, the royal butler, who funnily enough conveys in soft whispers just like in the book.

The visuals are quite lovely. The design of the giants including that of the BFG have smoothness and the computer-generated images moves fluidly. The environment of Giant Country is simple but imaginative and the design of Dream Country, while not monochrome like in the book, looks and feels magical. The film does have some flatulence, which is often seen as lowbrow humour, but it is excusable seeing as whizzpopping, as it is called, was part of the book and is done in an endearing way. The film’s narrative climax is a little more challenging or dangerous to the heroes than that of the book, which is an improvement, especially since it doesn’t resort to some big epic battle like in many other contemporary fantasy remakes. One may recognise the music is similar to that of Hook (1991), another Spielberg film. In fact, the music is composed by John Williams, the same musician who composed the music for Hook and Jaws (1975). Unfortunately the music often doesn’t match with situations, which is extremely disappointing seeing how Spielberg and William’s collaborative process revolves around matching music to situation.

A big flaw in this film is the drama and the pacing. Not enough is devoted at the beginning in introducing the characters to each other. In fact Sophie and the BFG don’t even ask each other’s names until midway into the movie. Some may remember this was also a significant flaw in M. Night Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender (2010) – among many others – but the most fascinating similarity in this comparison is that both Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender and Spielberg’s The BFG both have the same producers: Frank Marshall and Sam Mercer. Perhaps there is a connection between at least one of these producers and this flaw in storytelling that has appeared at least twice in their movies. The film also introduces a tragic backstory that was not part of the book, and honestly it is unnecessary.

While the script uses many familiar quotes from the book, it is not especially well written, at least in terms of how it rearranges what lines go where. The book is much better in how, where and when it places the subjects discussed in the dialogue. Instead of simply condensing it, the script rearranges what scenes certain dialogue is put into, and as a result these conversations can become out of place depending on when they are and what is happening. There is, for instance, a point in the film where the BFG drives the other giants out of his cave to conceal Sophie. It is a big moment for the BFG’s character and as an experience for the audience, but then Sophie follows it up by talking about words and the way the BFG talks. It’s like they don’t have a sense of urgency after what just happened!

The film has its share of directorial, visual and story errors in its own right. For example, when Sarah jumps into bed because the BFG spots her, she recites the rules about not getting up after dark. It seems strange that this would be her reaction, and besides, the loudness of her voice should wake up some of the other children in the orphanage and even more human beans would spot the giant. And there’s the shot of the nine antagonist giants standing outside the BFG’s cave at night, possibly walking towards it, and yet they don’t enter in that scene, so…were they just standing outside looking at the BFG’s house all night? On the subject of giants, if they don’t like water in this version, why don’t they all have a cave for when it rains? Why is the “runt” of the group the only one who has shelter? Also, if the BFG can hear so well that he can enjoy music coming from the stars, how does he not hear Sophie scurrying and sneaking on his windowsill when he first brings her to his cave? The film establishes Sarah has insomnia, yet this never comes into play. In fact, she falls asleep almost immediately after because the BFG starts reading aloud only a few sentences from a book. And even forgetting that the BFG in this version gives Sophie a nightmare (which is really out of character when you think about it) instead of simply explaining the rules of being a human in Giant Country, how does Sophie immediately know it was him who did it? She knows he collects dreams but she doesn’t know he manipulates them at the time.

Though as a film Spielberg’s The BFG is not a well-written one, it does capture the tone and spirit of the source material as one might expect the tone to be, though without some of the more gruesome imagery suggested in the book. Despite all our negative feedback it is enjoyable to sit through. However, behind the magically whimsical feel, music, visuals and character/actor charms, it is not well made in terms of plot or dramatic pacing. The changes the film makes, for the most part, don’t strengthen the story like they should. It is laden with plot holes, dramatic urgency and necessity are ignored, and the flow of emotional realism is skewed. Maybe a decent and colourful spectacle to take your kids to see, but to those who love the book and love the story Roald Dahl told, this adaptation is a huge disappointment.