Movie review: Spielberg's ‘BFG' has a huge heart

Fortunately, for movielovers far and wide, Steven Spielberg has been all over the map making straight-up dramas, goofy comedies, science-fiction epics, and historical narratives. He's produced and directed and had his hand in every creative aspect of movies aimed at kids, at adults and, in many cases, at both kids and adults. With "The BFG," based on the fantastical 1982 novel by Roald Dahl, it's safe to say that Spielberg has made one for himself — or possibly the 10-year-old version of himself.

Sophie (newcomer Ruby Barnhill) is a 10-year-old resident of an orphanage in London where, friendless and an insomniac, she's up every night at 3 — the time she refers to as the witching hour — reading Dickens and staying alert for any odd sounds. One particularly noisy night she runs to the window, from which she sees on the dark street below, a swift, graceful, agile giant.

Noticing that she notices him, and, being a giant in London who doesn't want to be discovered by any "normal" people, the misshapen big guy (his head is far too large for his scrawny body) grabs Sophie in her blanket and carries her off to Giant Country.

Though she's at first scared witless, it's soon made clear that she's quite fearless, and a chat with the giant, who's named Rance, assures her that he won't eat her. In fact, though it's often hard to understand him because he's adept at comically mangling the English language with bastardizations of common words, it's also clear that he's a jolly good fellow, and he only wants to protect her.

Yet all he can really do is warn her not to try to escape. The reason: There are other giants around, much larger ones, who are mean (they bully Rance) and moronic and ever-hungry, and wouldn't even consider not gobbling Sophie upon first sight or smell.

So in his lair she remains, but grows, as Lewis Carroll once wrote, curiouser and curiouser, about such items as all of Rance's glass jars that are filled with constantly moving, very colorful wisps of smoke. They're dreams, he tells her, some good, some bad, and collecting them is how he makes his living; he's a dreamcatcher.

This is a wondrous movie, bursting with gorgeous, glowing, magical imagery, much of it under the night sky; featuring a light playfulness that permeates it, but has danger lurking in the shadows and a warm friendship at its center; and boasts two delightful performances. Young Barnhill is a real find, pulling off a strong and winsome portrayal of an appealing character; and Rylance, the accomplished stage actor who won an Oscar as Rudolf Abel in Spielberg's "Bridge of Spies," makes superb use of his gentle demeanor and expressive face, which peeks through even all of that digital makeup.

Although there's plenty of adventure and action and peril and bravery in its storytelling (even the Queen makes an appearance in a subsequent return to London), the film is about the attraction and tight friendship of these two very opposite people. Rance is happy to have another friend (there's a brief, sad back story about his first), and Sophie is thrilled because she's never had one. He takes to calling her a little frugglefrump, while she calls him BFG or Big Friendly Giant.

No dates are ever mentioned, but the time is fairly easy to pinpoint when the Queen makes an important phone call, says hello to "Nancy," and asks to speak with "Ronnie." Some of the film's best visual gags are saved for a dinnertime scene with the Queen, Sophie, and Rance, who proves to know less of proper etiquette than he does of vocabulary. A return to Giant Country in the final act piles on even more funny stuff, and the film concludes in a manner that will generate happy sighs of satisfaction. At the very end, it's dedicated to the late Melissa Mathison, who wrote the script, her second for Spielberg after "E.T. the Extraterrestrial." That's a heartfelt gesture, but it also would have been fine if that last credit read "For Steven."

— Ed Symkus covers movies for More Content Now.

"The BFG"

Written by Melissa Mathison; directed by Steven Spielberg

With Mark Rylance and Ruby Barnhill

Rated PG