REVIEW: The BFG: The Best Film Going?

ROALD Dahl is responsible for writing one of my favourite books, ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’, Steven Spielberg, for directing some of my favourite movies, ‘Indiana Jones’, ‘Jaws’, ‘E.T.’, the list is endless. 

Put the two together, and add Disney as producers, and you get ‘The BFG’, or Big Friendly Giant. Sounds like a recipe for success.

The film tells the story of an orphaned girl named Sophie, who one night, encounters a giant, tiptoeing through the streets of her town, trying to go unnoticed. 

Because he’s been spotted, and afraid that she might blow his cover, the giant whisks a terrified Sophie away to his homeland. 

But despite his intimidating appearance, he turns out to be a kindhearted soul, considered an outcast by the other giants because, unlike them, he refuses to eat children.

The story goes on to reveal that the BFG works in the clouds as a dream catcher, and ventures into the city at night to dispense them. 

But after the man-eating giants destroy BFG’s workshop while sniffing around for Sophie, our hero hatches a plan to visit the Queen and ask for help.

Mark Rylance, who seems to be Spielberg’s new Tom Hanks, is excellent as the jumbo-sized colossus, and 11-year-old Ruby Barnhill is an amazing find as young Sophie. 

Spielberg and Dahl really are masters at capturing life through the eyes of a young person, while dealing with adult themes at the same time. 

The combination works really well here, and you can’t help wondering what a Spielberg directed Willy Wonka would have looked like.

The movie is aimed squarely at children, though parents and those of us who never grew up will also enjoy it. 

The fart jokes will no doubt work especially well with the kids, and the sight of the Queen of England and her corgis trouser coughing with fizzy frobscottle, would bring a smile to the face of even the most hardened Orangeman.

Is The BFG the best film going? Yes, but only until next week. We score it a scrumdiddlyumptious, 4 out of 5 stars.

REVIEW: Paul O’Rourke