The BFG

Executive producers Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy have been developing this film since 1991 and at one point, the late Robin Williams was going to play the title role. I remember being pleased by the announcement that Steven Spielberg was going to direct "The BFG". I also got a little more excited that Melissa Mathison was going to be the screenwriter (this is the first time Spielberg and Mathison have collaborated since "E.T."). As a child, the first few chapters of Roald Dahl's book were read to me in school but I forget why our class didn't continue reading. Despite my looking forward to this movie, I didn't know what to expect. After seeing the film, I was surprised to find that it is my least favourite Spielberg-directed film I have seen. "The BFG" wasn't horrible but its biggest problem was that the story did not flow naturally. The special effects were noteworthy and some amazing filmmakers were involved in the movie besides the ones previously mentioned. Despite all this, the movie was low in entertainment value story-wise.

Usually Spielberg can deliver entertainment on a visual scale without sacrificing the story unlike Tim Burton or Guillermo Del Toro. This time though, he seemed more interested in what we see in the movie. Besides this, the start of the movie and the climax failed to captivate and satisfy. We didn't get much time to know Sophie before she is taken by BFG for example. There was a noticeable absence of rising and falling action throughout the plot as well. The climax wasn't the highpoint of the film by far. The part of the film that really felt out of place was Sophie being returned to the orphanage. She wakes up on the doorstep, leaving us just as confused as she is because we don't know how she fell asleep to begin with. I did feel a little fear when Sophie steps out on the balcony before jumping off because of the silence but what would have been more dramatic was for her to vocally consider that BFG and Giant Country was all a dream. The most entertaining parts of the movie involved the Queen and those at Buckingham. It made for some amusing moments. Another noteworthy scene is when Sophie jumps through the pond into the world of dreams. Unfortunately, the majority of the story did not feel like an organized plot. The filmmakers appear to have stayed true to the book in most ways but some of the changes they made might have caused this flaw in the movie's story.

Considering the names behind this film, I have stumped as to what exactly went wrong. These include the usual collaborators that Spielberg employs such as cinematographer Janusz Kaminski, production designer Rick Carter and editor Michael Kahn. The last time visual effects supervisor Joe Letteri worked on one of Spielberg's movies was "Tintin" but he also worked on most of the "Middle-Earth" films. John Williams' score is just as fanciful and pleasing to the ear as can be expected from a man with fifty Oscar nominations. The best casting decision was Oscar-winner Mark Rylance as BFG (he won his Academy Award for his performance in Spielberg's previous movie by the way). Through the use of motion capture and facial design, Rylance allowed BFG to be accepted by the audience as a real character. His vocal performance also felt believable in that Dahl's and Mathison's words for the character became his. Another great casting choice was Rebecca Hall (I have seen her in a few other films but I first took notice of her after seeing "Frost/Nixon"). I failed to recognize Bill Hader as one of the giants. Speaking of them, most of the actors playing the giants have live action cameos throughout the film.

Steven Spielberg has worked with Disney before on such films as "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" and "Lincoln" but that was by way of Disney's Touchstone banner. This is the first time that Spielberg has directed a movie directly for Walt Disney Pictures but I wish "The BFG" had turned out better. Financially, it is not doing well either thanks to competition from the box office smash "Finding Dory" (even though that movie was released three weeks prior to "The BFG", I guess Disney underestimated the power of that long awaited sequel). "The BFG" mostly has plotline problems. This show has plenty of eye candy but that is not what I go to the movies to see, let alone a movie made by these long-time colleagues.

3 Stars