Review of The BFG (2016) by Jared J — 09 Jul 2016

As Chris Stuckmann said, "it's not every day that you get a new Steven Spielberg film as well as a new score by John Williams" (one of the most famous director-composer partnerships in all of Hollywood). And based on the box office numbers, the premise of a new Spielberg [this time opting to reunite with the other folks involved in the production for "E.T"] film on its own wasn't enough to get viewers interested to see it.

I think, and this is just MY opinion, that the marketing for this film was terrible. The trailer made the film look like another CGI-heavy flick for kids with no substance aside from its visuals. None of the trailers that I saw said anything along the lines of: "based on the beloved book from the author of classics like "Matilda" and "Willy Wonka" comes a new story whose time has come. Steven Spielberg presents...The Big Friendly Giant." Imagine if Disney had hired the epic trailer dude to recite that, bam, that's all you'd need to get me in the theater. But instead, the title that Disney went with was "The BFG," and that's not a title that would exactly motivate me to want to pay to see it if someone else were doing the directing. It's almost as if Disney wasn't confident in this project at all, handed out money to Spielberg to see what would happen, and then didn't even bother with trying to promote it properly.

The real shame of its poor box office returns is that "The BFG" is a warm and magical film. Though neither spectacular nor unexciting. There's something about the film that just wins you over, and I couldn't help but smile throughout the film. Maybe it's the performances, maybe it's "just" the visuals, or maybe it's the music. To be honest, I don't care. Spielberg gives movie-goers, despite what all the naysayers would have you believe, something special. This is a special film, made with obvious care and heart from beginning to end.

Mark Rylance plays the titular character and right away--I mean, as soon as the giant started talking--I found him very likable. He's like a silly grandfather or something; you almost want to hug the guy. And speaking of talking, Mr. Rylance must have spent countless hours doing verbal exercises because the BFG's vocabulary is pretty "squiggly" (that's the word used in the film) and it never feels like he's just memorizing a bunch of wacky words like 'Scrumdiddlyumptious' [the spelling's probably off]. I'm reminded of 2013's "Romeo & Juliet"; a lot of that movie involved a bunch of regurgitation where the actors were almost babbling nonsense as if merely to get the scenes over with, but with the BFG I never doubted the actor/character once. ["Speak with criminal slang. That's just the way that [he] talks, yo. Vocabulary spills, [BFG's] ill"].

I'll admit that the CGI isn't always seamless, particularly when the BFG and the human characters interact, but fortunately a lot of attention went to Rylance's face. I believe a lot of facial scanning and all that was used for the BFG; the face has so many muscles that, ultimately, that's the one thing that needed to be no less than 'perfect' because the face can say a lot with or without any dialogue. There's so many emotions and expressions that can be made and here, it all feels naturally, well, because it is natural. It's literally the actor's face [which means that he has to ACT in the role as opposed to 'simply' lending his voice] that you're seeing and it helps make the BFG feel more "believable.".

Ruby Barnhill is the young and talented actress who plays Sophie, and I thought she did a really great job. She has these mannerisms of innocence and childlike wonder, and with that, she's able to build this friendship with the BFG [not unlike, say, Spielberg's own E.T] in a way that it never feels forced. What has happened in other films is that you'll have this friendship that just comes off as fake, the interactions are wooden or seem too scripted, but that's not the case with "The BFG." Steven Spielberg as of late seems to know exactly what he wants in his shot and then somehow manages to achieve those shots, and he's in no hurry to rush things along. In scenes where the CGI doesn't always hold up, the quibbles and exchanges, as well as the chemistry between Miss Barnhill's Sophie and Mr. Rylance's the BFG, are there for the important support piece. To make us believe that the two are really talking, that it's 'actually' happening. Like I said, I never doubted the film for a second.

And how can I talk about a Steven Spielberg picture without mentioning the highly regarded and [to quote Ennio Morricone] esteemed, John Williams? The 84-year-old composer seems to be aging backwards with the impressive score for 'The Force Awakens' behind him, Williams [peace be upon him] adds another solid entry to his already legendary resume. Those woodwinds, yo, those woodwinds. The score for "the BFG" is far from being a 'classic' but with the baton in Williams' hand, the results are undeniably respectable.

This is the first instance where I was able to buy the CD and listen to it a few times BEFORE seeing the film. I have to say, the music [in my opinion] works better in the film than on its own. The score [as other scores do, both by Williams and other composers] is so connected with the film that it almost seems like Williams was writing the music live while Spielberg was directing; it's difficult to imagine that one existed without the other at one point.

I do wish to add that a reviewer of non-profession said that the music sounded like the early Harry Potters; overall, this is not the case. I think this person took notice of the numerous woodwind performances and inaccurately labelled it as Harry Potter-sounding [which reminds me of the time, allegedly, a professional reviewer said that John Powell's score for "Pan" sounded like Williams' greatest hits, and that turned to be a rubbish claim]. The composer's efforts might not impress casual listeners on the surface but make no mistake of this: the music for this film is still better than Most of what you'll hear elsewhere from Hollywood.

My praise for "the BFG" aside, there are flaws with the film. If one were to divide "the BFG" into 4 parts, the third quarter of the film had the weakest parts. The antagonists (the 'monsters' of Giant Country) while mean and effective on-screen bullies, also had some dorky moments where it was difficult to find them menacing or even slightly intimidating. I don't know, to me, they just seemed too silly at times. The ending, while sweet and all that, didn't have the punch that I thought it would (it wasn't terrible or anything, I just think it could have been more emotional or something). There's lots of minor stuff I could bring up and it doesn't really matter, it's not going to affect my opinion of the film THAT much. To me, "the BFG" is a 80 out of 100.

I will say this, though, usually when a movie does a fart joke. I consider that to be a sign of desperation and failure. Fuck it, Steven Spielberg gets a pass from me. Not because I love the guy's work, but because of its place in context of the film. It's not an awkward fart joke or the type of fart that producers/directors/writers think that audiences will bust a rib over, it actually works in "The BFG" and I was a bit surprised. Fart jokes can work, guys [Adam Sandler, please don't read that, not that he ever actually will, and add more of them to your garbage, I mean, movies]. Oh, and no, I haven't read the book (the BFG). But I did read "Matilda" and "Fantastic Mr. Fox" in the 4th grade.