|
The BFG
| Released |
22 July 2016 |
| Director |
Steven Spielberg |
Starring
|
Mark Rylance, Ruby Barnhill, Penelope Wilton, Jemaine Clement, Rebecca Hall, Rafe Spall, Bill Hader, Olafur Darri Olafsson, Adam Godley |
| Writer(s) |
Melissa Mathison |
Producer(s)
|
Frank Marshall, Sam Mercer, Steven Spielberg |
Origin
|
United Kingdom, Canada, United States |
| Running Time |
117 minutes |
| Genre |
Adventure, fantasy |
| Rating |
PG |
|
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A huge disappointment.
When adults speak about the joy and wonder of childhood, they forget one very crucial thing; children are tiny anarchists. They rejoice in the squalid, mischievous aspects of life that are inaccessible to polite adult society. Children are dark and edgy little creatures. Roald Dahl fundamentally understood this; that's why his writing teems with themes that play directly to the dark side of childhood. When his writing is paired with a directing sensibility that is equally dark, the result is thrilling – see Nic Roeg's wonderfully disturbing adaptation of The Witches. Conversely, giving soppy old Steven Spielberg the job results in a film that irreparably softens all of Dahl's brilliant sharp edges.
In a London orphanage, a young girl called Sophie (Ruby Barnhill) is finding it hard to sleep. Awake in the middle of the night, she sees something she was never meant to; a giant that stalks the streets of the capital every night. When the giant spots Sophie, he snatches her from her bed and takes her to the land of the giants. Sophie and the BFG (Mark Rylance) become firm friends and devise a plan to protect the humans of London from the cannibalistic tendencies of his more violent kin.
The film relies heavily on CGI and motion capture but unusually for this kind of film, it is those artificial elements that actually work most satisfactorily. Rylance's motion capture work is really beautiful, the subtlety of his expressions and the joyful explosions of gobbledegook that make up his speech feel true to Dahl's vision. The rest of the production however has a sickly sweet sheen that I found unpleasant. Where once the name Spielberg represented heart coupled with integrity, it now conjures images of schmaltz and nuance-free filmmaking. His take on The BFG would be unwatchable were it not for Rylance – a bland, meandering tale without a hint of the darkness that made it a great read.
-
Linda O'Brien |
