Screen BFG causes a great rumpledumpus
THE BFG, PF, 117MINS Released Friday including Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough Star rating out of 10: 8
The final collaboration of Steven Spielberg and Melissa Mathison, director and screenwriter of ET: The Extra-Terrestrial, is a gloriumptious rendering of Roald Dahl’s fantasy, peppered with the author’s gobblefunk lexicon of jumbly words.
Sweetness and childish wonder glister in every frame, including a towering motion capture performance from Mark Rylance as the eponymous hulk, who blows bottled dreams into bedrooms using his phizz-whizzing metal trumpet.
On-screen rapport between the Oscar-winning actor and young co-star Ruby Barnhill galvanizes the picture.
The heroine is a precocious orphan called Sophie (Barnhill), who is snatched from her bed at the witching hour by a hooded 24-feet tall figure.
The behemoth spirits the girl over verdant valleys and crashing seas to the rolling landscapes of Giant Country.
The BFG wouldn’t normally kidnap a chiddler, but he explains that he was fearful Sophie might cause a great rumpledumpus by yodelling the news that she had seen a giant.
A tender and deeply touching friendship is forged between Sophie and her kind-hearted abductor, who set out to defeat other notso friendly giants with the help of the Queen (Penelope Wilton)
Directed with verve by Spielberg, The BFG is a visually arresting ride that gently tugs heartstrings in between rollicking set pieces.