The BFG (Big Friendly Giant; 2016, out now on DVD) comes with questions, but it is a journey. It’s the journey there that keeps the audience glued because we want to know the answers to the questions that we implicitly ask while watching The BFG.

The first question is why Sophie is taken away by a giant. It’s the biggest question in this movie.

It’s a question Sophie asks the giant when he takes her to his abode in Giant Country, somewhere well beyond the outskirts of London.

He replies he is protecting Sophie from giants that eat children. He’s obviously the Big Friendly Giant (BFG), then.

 

 

But what will Sophie do in the BFG’s abode, a makeshift cave? Will she be there all of her life?

The BFG is trying to protect Sophie from giants, but unfriendly giants stay outside the BFG’s cave. It seems the BFG has brought the child into the wrong place, but the unfriendly giants might have struck in London and eaten Sophie. The unfriendly giants are after human flesh and blood.

Will Sophie have to spend all of her life inside the cave with the BFG just to avoid the unfriendly giants? Won’t BFG face up to the unfriendly giants?

What happens when an unfriendly giant gets into BFG’s cave?

It’s like a bad dream, but if the story ends there, there is no story.

Things happen and the Big Friendly Giant and the unfriendly giants clash. The BFG can’t stand up to them, though. They are stronger.

What is a young girl to do? Isn’t the BFG supposed to protect the little girl?

The audience wants the BFG to help the girl, but maybe the girl is the key to unlocking the future of the giants in Giant Country.

This is her time. This is her chance. But how?

The other theme I find in The BFG, and you may find others, is that a normally ostracized giant is the best friend one could have. He’s also a ‘dream weaver’. He has the ability to provide pleasant dreams to children, as a kind of provider. These dreams make the dreamer feel important. This shunned giant can make children feel good.

The film

The film is dedicated to Melissa Mathison, who died after adapting Roald Dahl’s book The BFG for the screen. Melissa wrote the Oscar nominated screenplay of E.T. (1982).

The visual effects are Oscar worthy, the eye boggling interplay between the giant world and the human one.

Mark Rylance as the BFG is entirely believable. The expressions on his face are subtle, but effective at evoking feelings in the viewer. Ruby Barnhill as Sophie is appropriately charming.

The imaginative source material (Roald Dahl’s book) and Melissa’s adaptation are the fuel for this film. Master craftsman Steven Spielberg directs.

It’s a good story, well-told.

* * * *  (out of * * * * * stars)

Warnings–some scenes may be too scary for very young children