Hello, night owls! If you recall from Monday's hasty post, I mentioned that I'd seen Spielberg's film adaptation of the Roald Dahl story The BFG. Today, I will now give you my thoughts!
I'm not going to discuss why movie adaptations are different than the source material - not now, at least. It's a given that the movie will be different from the book, so no serious nitpicking and complaining about details will be done here. And if none of you have read the book or seen the movie yet, this is your spoiler alert - you have been warned!
The BFG is a 1982 children's book written by the famous author Roald Dahl (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, Fantastic Mr. Fox, James and the Giant Peach - all of which have been adapted to film). Written for a daughter who died too young, it's the story of an orphan named Sophie who discovers a world of giants with the smallest, friendliest giant there is - the Big Friendly Giant (hence, the BFG). Together, with the power of dreams and a little help from the Queen of England, they manage to stop terrible, bigger giants from gobbling up children around the world. It's a lovely little story of friendship and courage that is welcome in anyone's library, no matter how old you are.
It was one of my favorite stories when I was eleven, so when I heard it was getting the film treatment, I was very excited. To be honest, I was more excited than nervous, in spite of having seen some truly awful adaptations of other favorite books (looking at you, Eragon!). However, when I heard that Steven Spielberg was directing it, I felt that it would at least get a decent treatment.
And personally speaking, I felt that's exactly what happened.
One of the things that I was glad for was the handling of CGI effects. After The Hobbit movies, I almost completely detest CGI because of how obvious it is. With The BFG, however, I was pleasantly surprised. The look of the BFG's home, Giant Country, and Dream Country didn't feel incredibly glossed over or like a video game. Sometimes, I couldn't even tell how much of the sets were built and how much were CGI'd in later. The BFG himself looked great, still keeping all the facial expressions of the wonderful Mark Rylance and never breaking my suspension of disbelief with weird motions. The only true weak spot this movie has as far as CGI goes are the bigger giants. They were fine for the most part, but their facial expressions kept making me think back to some of the awkward animation of The Polar Express.
The sets and overall production design, by the way, is amazing. I loved every inch of the world the movie presented us. The city at night, Giant Country, the BFG's home, Dream Country, Buckingham Palace - all of it was well presented. I was especially impressed with the BFG's home and Dream Country. When I'd read the book, I knew he lived in a cave, but I couldn't every imagine a clear enough picture of what it looked like. Seeing Spielberg's vision of the giant's warmly lit living room and his magical dream workshop was mesmerizing and made me smile. Dream Country is especially wondrous, with its star-filled skies, its magical lake, and the dream-giving tree.
Mark Rylance was everything I could have asked for as the BFG. I'd seen him in his Oscar-winning role in Bridge of Spies, so when I heard he was playing the movie's titular character, I was extremely happy. He brings such sympathy and tenderness to the character that you might not have felt while reading the book, and he handles the BFG's strange vocabulary with perfect grace. All in all, he brings nobility to the lonely giant and shows that he is just as human as anyone else.
There are really only two major differences in this movie that I think could have been done better or differently. In the book, the plot point of giants eating children is pretty important: it's the very first thing that Sophie and the BFG discuss and it's a constant issue throughout the whole book. While Sophie and the BFG do talk about it in the movie, you almost completely forget about it until many scenes later when Sophie sees the giants marching towards London and figures out why. I feel they could have made the giants a little more of a threatening presence, at the very least.
The last and most important difference is the ending. In the book, the BFG leaves Giant Country and lives with Sophie in our world, where he can enjoy her friendship (and the superior food - snozzcumbers are nasty!). But in the movie, they have it where he goes back to Giant Country while Sophie lives at Buckingham Palace. Now, here's the thing. Granted, a giant would probably feel strange and a bit out of place living in a world where everything is accommodated to much smaller people. However, the BFG is a very lonely guy who hasn't had a friend in who knows how long...and after finding a great friend in Sophie and kicking out the other giants, what could possibly make him return to the empty Giant Country?
Otherwise, I enjoyed this film. I was generally pleased with the treatment of the story and I loved the look of the production - something about it kept reminding me of the gritty fantasy films of the 80's (the score by John Williams also helps with that). If you're looking for something pleasant and whimsical, I would definitely recommend seeing this film.
~Maud,
Official Night Owl
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