Steven Spielberg’s name incites expected greatness. The man has produced so many amazing films in so many genres that any time he’s involved, we expect something magical to happen. Were the BFG directed by some no name, I would think the movie is pretty solid, but pretty solid is pretty crappy for Steven Spielberg. The BFG is no ET.
The movie opens late at night in a British orphanage. Our narrator Sophie (Ruby Barnhill) unexpectedly witnesses the Big Friendly Giant (Mark Rylance) retrieving some items in the London streets. The giant realizes she’ll squeal, so he takes her to giant country. However, he forgets that he lives around many giants who particularly like to eat little humans, especially Fleshlumpeater (Jermaine Clement). The two then bond in their mutual disgust of the other giants’ behavior, and seek the help of the queen (Penelope Wilton) and her military might to confront the giants.
Spielberg’s positive fingerprints on The BFG are CGI and visual effects from his trusted guy Janusz Kaminski. There’s a dream tree in the film that captures the color and innocence of capturing fireflies in colorful ways. However, the best stuff in the BFG is using the giant’s height in amusing ways. The trek to giant country is great watching the giant hide in clever ways, and the best scene in the movie is when the BFG and the Queen eat a meal together in a small building. When trying to dazzle the eye, The BFG moderately succeeds in being fun and interesting.
However, those scenes are few and far between. The BFG is mostly BORING. I’ve struggled to explain why this is, because it isn’t just one thing. Mark Rylance is quite good as the BFG, so he’s not too blame. Little Ruby Barnhill is directed too oppressively cute; it’s very obvious she’s being fed lines while she’s reacting to things she can’t see, just too tough a job for her. Probably the biggest problem is Spielberg himself: he’s not a good fit for Roald Dahl’s source material. Dahl is famous for crafting outwardly awkward looking characters that are beautiful inwardly. The BFG should have maybe been a little scarier at first and softened as time goes on. Instead, Spielberg introduces us to the BIGGER, SCARIER giants too early so we immediately sympathize with the BFG. Spielberg must have too strong an affection for the material too, because he doesn’t give the movie any real stakes. Though the girl could be eaten at any time by the giants, it’s obvious that these bigger giants are doofuses, and will be outsmarted by the BFG at some point. There are also lots of extended kid jokes that undercut any seriousness Spielberg wants to give the story, like a couple loud farts. Were Guillermo del Toro or Tim Burton to have made The BFG, the Dahl source material would have been better matched, sadly.
The BFG is a forgettable movie. What’s happened to you Steven Spielberg? Since Munich, you have made maybe one great film, Lincoln, and that’s it. I shudder at the thought that we may be witnessing the end of one of the great directing eras, and the BFG will be a warning sign we will talk about for when it started.