Roald Dahl's tamed tale

Steven Spielberg's The BFG is a visual treat featuring bottled dreams and man-gobbling giants, but it misses the mark by sanitising a dark tale

At a time when shadows prowl under streetlights, cats thoroughly inspect trash cans and men stagger on their way home after finding happiness at the bottom of a bottle, little Sophie stands by the window. The orphanage is the only home Sophie has ever known, and her blanket is her sole comforter as she battles insomnia and finds solace in books.

Based on a children’s book Roald Dahl wrote in 1982, director Steven Spielberg’s The BFG is an exercise in stunning visuals as Sophie embarks on a surreal adventure with her ‘abductor,’ a 24-feet giant — one of Dahl’s most loved characters.

In this live-action fantasy adventure, Mark Rylance stars as the elderly BFG, aka Big Friendly Giant, who whisks Sophie (Ruby Barnhill) away to the far-away and off-our-maps Giant Country after she sees him: the existence of giants is unheard of in Sophie’s world.   

But the Giant Country, where human children are best known as ‘tasty morsels’, is no place for Sophie. Even if the kind-hearted BFG prefers a diet of vegetables, there are other behemoths (the biggest of them thumps around at 54 feet) who use man-made trucks as skates to roll down mountainsides, and their keen sense of smell is conditioned to hunt down Sophie’s kind.  

The plot is simple enough — these two must team together not just to save Sophie, but also the unsuspecting humans the giants feast on. Their journey is truly visually arresting as they travel across verdant valleys and boundless seas, with even the Buckingham Palace thrown in to advance the story.

Though it’s easy to see glimpses of oneself in Sophie as she holds up the torchlight to read long after everyone has gone to bed, Rylance as the BFG is easily a more memorable character. A master of camouflage as he flits between human settlements and Giant Country, BFG’s endearing goofiness warms your heart and paves the way for humour. BFG’s love for an effervescent green brew called ‘frobscottle’ is unparalleled; his grasp of English grammar is comically horrendous.

What makes this old giant so lovable is his relationship with Sophie — somewhere along the way, he becomes her friend, sibling, guardian and protector all at once. Moreover, this giant is a catcher of dreams. He bottles them up in glass jars and stores them in his cave behind a cascading waterfall, readying them to be unleashed when the time is right.   

The BFG is the first Disney-branded film directed by Spielberg, and it is probably the Disney banner that has kept it from achieving its full potential. Though The BFG is mostly a faithful adaptation, it keeps away the darkness of Dahl’s original version, thus taking away the depth that makes Dahl’s story so memorable. The move to present a macabre tale of giants eating humans as a happier one plays down the magnitude of havoc these giants have created. But, on the bright side, it ensures that no nightmares follow after the end credits roll out.

Another hitch for an adult mind is that the crisis-resolution in the second act unfolds too fast, too easily and too optimistically. But, devoid of the frenzied complication of multiple plot twists, this fantasy film’s absurdities are to be appreciated for their over-the-top, yet straightforward, elements.

Leave behind the rationale sprouted by grown-up minds if you want to enjoy The BFG. The film, after all, is the dream-like tale of two misfits coming together to champion the cause of humankind, the victory of good over evil.