The BFG (PG.)
Directed by Steven Spielberg.
Starring Mark Rylance, Ruby Barnhill, Penelope Wilton, Rebecca Hall, Rafe Spall and Jemaine Clement. 117 mins
Among the sadder aspects of the 21st century, a century that has not been short of sad aspects, is Steven Spielberg’s slow slide into irrelevance. Since Private Ryan, it has felt like he has consciously taken a step back, leaving others to duke it out for the big prizes. Initially, this resulted in some really interesting films (Minority Report, Munich, Catch Me If You Can) but, after the last Indiana Jones fiasco, these smaller, personal projects have been largely underwhelming. His loving adaptation of the Roald Dahl favourite is full of charm and cheek, but feels like a lovely boot sale curio rather than the shiny shiny today's children are accustomed to. It’s a Big Little Film, a little too oversized to quite do justice to its source material, yet a little too provincial to survive in the harsh global playground.
Dahl and Spielberg would seem to dovetail perfectly as they both specialised in tales of lonely, miserable children who are rescued by fantastical forces. Here the lonely child is an orphan, Sophie (Barnhill who is like Matt Lucas in little girl form) who lives in a Victorian version of eighties London. One night she is whisked away from the orphanage by the Big Friendly Giant, a wonderful motion capture performance by Rylance, and taken to Giant Land where he is bullied by the other, bigger, giants because he won't eat children. The BFG is a muddle mouth wurzel and says things like “telly telly Bunkum Box” and “Hippo dumplings.” He's a perfick mix of Stanley Unwin and Pop Larkins from the Darling Buds of May.
Dahl's work seems to flourish when adapted to the stage or screen. Wes Anderson, Tim Burton are among those who have managed to put their mark on his work while staying true to his vision. Spielberg has his nasty side but he doesn't quite gel with Dahl's irreverence. The film is scripted by the late Melissa Mathison, who wrote E.T. for him, and even if you are new to the story, you could see that it is completely faithful to the original, in a way that suggest they never quite got a grip on it. They have accurately copied out what was on the page and yet this exact copy is not the same thing at all.
And, though I hesitate to mention it, isn't there something a bit sinister about a story that has a young girl running off and becoming very attached to a much older man? The thought popped into my head quite early on and I was going to drop it but in the last third there are headlines about boys and girls being stolen away, by the other giants, from children's homes and you begin to wonder if this Big and Friendly giant isn't a metaphor for something Big but much less friendly.
Directed by Steven Spielberg.
Starring Mark Rylance, Ruby Barnhill, Penelope Wilton, Rebecca Hall, Rafe Spall and Jemaine Clement. 117 mins
Among the sadder aspects of the 21st century, a century that has not been short of sad aspects, is Steven Spielberg’s slow slide into irrelevance. Since Private Ryan, it has felt like he has consciously taken a step back, leaving others to duke it out for the big prizes. Initially, this resulted in some really interesting films (Minority Report, Munich, Catch Me If You Can) but, after the last Indiana Jones fiasco, these smaller, personal projects have been largely underwhelming. His loving adaptation of the Roald Dahl favourite is full of charm and cheek, but feels like a lovely boot sale curio rather than the shiny shiny today's children are accustomed to. It’s a Big Little Film, a little too oversized to quite do justice to its source material, yet a little too provincial to survive in the harsh global playground.
Dahl and Spielberg would seem to dovetail perfectly as they both specialised in tales of lonely, miserable children who are rescued by fantastical forces. Here the lonely child is an orphan, Sophie (Barnhill who is like Matt Lucas in little girl form) who lives in a Victorian version of eighties London. One night she is whisked away from the orphanage by the Big Friendly Giant, a wonderful motion capture performance by Rylance, and taken to Giant Land where he is bullied by the other, bigger, giants because he won't eat children. The BFG is a muddle mouth wurzel and says things like “telly telly Bunkum Box” and “Hippo dumplings.” He's a perfick mix of Stanley Unwin and Pop Larkins from the Darling Buds of May.
Dahl's work seems to flourish when adapted to the stage or screen. Wes Anderson, Tim Burton are among those who have managed to put their mark on his work while staying true to his vision. Spielberg has his nasty side but he doesn't quite gel with Dahl's irreverence. The film is scripted by the late Melissa Mathison, who wrote E.T. for him, and even if you are new to the story, you could see that it is completely faithful to the original, in a way that suggest they never quite got a grip on it. They have accurately copied out what was on the page and yet this exact copy is not the same thing at all.
And, though I hesitate to mention it, isn't there something a bit sinister about a story that has a young girl running off and becoming very attached to a much older man? The thought popped into my head quite early on and I was going to drop it but in the last third there are headlines about boys and girls being stolen away, by the other giants, from children's homes and you begin to wonder if this Big and Friendly giant isn't a metaphor for something Big but much less friendly.
