What’s The BFG? Spielberg and Rylance reunite for kid romp

By Katherine Monk

Crossing the abyss between safety and a tolerable sense of dread is the crux of the kid journey. Step by tentative step, we approach the unknown and either continue forward, retreat, or fall off the edge with a half-lung whisper or full-on scream.

Roald Dahl knew every rickety plank along the way, and with acrobatic skill and simple prose moves, he danced the child soul safely to the other side. Every time. From The Witches to James and the Giant Peach, Fantastic Mr. Fox to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Dahl’s stories always feature a young protagonist navigating the great divide between the child world of the fantastically small, and the adult galaxy of the dangerously large.

The BFG is the most obvious example: A later work published in 1982, The BFG tells the story of Sophie (Ruby Barnhill), an orphan living in central London under the iron fist of Mrs. Clonkers. Of course Sophie feels alone and misunderstood, but when she sees a large shadow move across the dorm window, her everyday woes look small.

Suddenly balled up in her very own blanket, the little orphan girl lands in a world above the clouds where giants roam and little human ‘beans’ are eaten for breakfast. Fortunately for Sophie, the ‘F’ in BFG stands for ‘friendly.’ This Big Friendly Giant is a vegetarian with a soft spot for kids – treating them like a human might treat a pet mouse.

For Sophie, anything is better than the orphanage. More importantly, Sophie has a new friend all her own. The only problem is the BFG has brothers, and they all eat meat. The rest is a cat and mouse game that eventually takes us behind the brass gates of Buckingham Palace.

Dahl’s minimal story, dedicated to his late daughter, focuses on the relationship between the big character and the small character, bridging the gap with mutual sympathy. Both characters are alone, and their shared outsider stance allows them to support each other in surprising ways.

Sophie can help the giant with her different perspective. The giant can do the same in return, plus give Sophie a sense of stature – letting her feel big in a big-person’s world.

It’s a sweet story with all the requisite bits of fantasy and fear, but as far as dramatic arcs go, it’s pretty shallow.

Fortunately, Steven Spielberg doesn’t need much depth to do his thing. The kid who piloted the jet-ski called Jaws takes this deluxe Disney yacht for a scenic tour of a landscape that looks a lot like our own, only through digital field glasses.

You can feel the special effects in this film because it’s roving the middle distance between live action and computer-generated imagery for the duration. Mark Rylance’s performance is a combination of motion-capture and pixel modeling, held together by his lilting vocal track steeped in Welsh notes.

First-timer Ruby Barnhill is equally entrancing with her big doe eyes and naturally precocious screen presence. Yet, for all the great work from the cast, the human part of the story always feels dwarfed by the perpetual eye-candy and the blurry shadow of plot.

We’re watching the story. We aren’t necessarily feeling it, and for a kids’ movie to really work magic – in a Frozen or Wall-E kind of way – we have to be standing on that suspension bridge of dread.

The BFG takes such huge leaps that we never feel the fear. We just feel the lurching of the action as it strides from act to act without any sense of elevation. As a kids’ film, it’s a sweet ride with lots to look that won’t leave any scars. But for grown-ups seeking the lost Dahl we grew up with and a communion with simpler pre-digital days, The BFG is no BFD.

@katherinemonk

THE EX-PRESS, July 1, 2016

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