‘Fing!’ Review: A Terribly British Tale of a Horrid Little Girl and Her Chaotic Furry Friend 

It might seem harsh to excoriate an 11-year-old, but “Fing!,” based on a popular children’s book by David Walliams, invites the criticism. So here goes: Myrtle (Iona Bell) is an awful child. She’s spoiled beyond belief, to the point where her nebbish librarian parents, the playfully named Meek family (Mia Wasikowska and Blake Harrison) are terrified of her. None of her schoolmates like her, and she deserves their judgement for being a selfish, entitled, sour-faced brat. She’s such a horrid little thing that it’s difficult to tolerate her, even within the context of a film.

These are all credits to the film’s young star Iona Bell, who is so good at playing bad that one is almost loath to forgive her when Myrtle inevitably learns a lesson about character and friendship by the end of the film (To be fair, one could argue that it’s her parents’ fault that she was so spoiled in the first place). It’s also a testament to the film’s very British style of tall-tale humor, which magnifies personalities and stretches scenarios to their most imaginative extremes. 

The basic logline here is, “what if Roald Dahl wrote an adaptation of ‘E.T.?,’” with the acid wit and fantastical adventure that combination implies (there’s a little bit of “Okja” in here as well). Unlike in Spielberg’s classic, here Mr. and Mrs. Meek know all about their daughter’s magical new friend — Mr. Meek is the one who travels all the way around the world to a remote jungle (that looks suspiciously like a temperate forest) to find it for her. Myrtle demands the Fing, in fact, shaking rooftops for miles around with her piercing scream when Mum and Dad hesitantly protest that Fings are imaginary creatures, making it impossible for them to give her one for her birthday. 

They figure it out, obviously, returning with the one thing that Myrtle didn’t already have in her overstuffed toy chest. This invites the envy of the Viscount (Taika Waititi), the aristocratic owner of a local wildlife park (not a zoo, thank you) who’s as coddled at 42 as Myrtle is at 11 (this, in turn, is at least partially on his devoted Nanny, played by veteran character actress Penelope Wilton). Waititi is famous for his deadpan banter, a skill that’s put to good use here as the two biggest brats in a film full of cartoon character flaws taunt each other like schoolyard bullies. Waititi never quite rises to a level of ridiculousness that would really make him stand out, however, and his Viscount is an afterthought in every scene where he doesn’t appear on screen — and in some scenes where he does. 

Myrtle is much better matched by the title creature itself, a one-eyed puffball (Americans might compare it to the ‘90s Post Honeycomb cereal mascot) that flits and flies around with its luxuriant auburn coat fluttering in the breeze. Myrtle and the Fing have the same hair and the same temperament, although the Fing’s brand of chaos is more playful than Myrtle’s. All Myrtle really needed was someone she could relate to, and having the high-intensity Fing around paradoxically makes the little girl much happier and calmer, like a living dose of Adderall. This allows her to make her first real friend, meek neighbor boy (and England’s no. 1 Meatloaf fan) Tyler (Sidhant Anand), setting up the story for the Spielbergian adventure of its second half. There, Fing is pursued by shadowy officials in hazmat suits waving flashlights, eventually developing a little bald spot on the top of its furry head from the stress. 

This is done not in the interest of science, but for the pursuit of money and “upper-class people always get[ting] what they want,” as the Viscount haughtily sniffs at his preteen rival when she protests the Fing’s removal from her modest lower-class home. Its class consciousness marks “Fing!” as quintessentially British, as much as a running verbal joke about the pronunciation of “Fing” being indistinguishable from the way the characters say the word “thing.” The film’s cynicism is cheeky, and as reflexive as complaining about the weather or spreading marmalade on a bit of toast. 

The stylized sets — positively Wes Anderson-esque at times — and oddly intense color grading contribute to the sense of heightened reality, bringing “Fing!” up to a level that, thankfully, stops just short of sugar-high mania. The film’s exaggerated whimsy has its pros and cons: While it’s controlled enough to not be totally exhausting, the film is unvarying enough that major character developments happen without an accompanying variation in tone, forcing viewers to rely on context clues to realize that, say, Myrtle has shifted from antagonist to protagonist over the course of a few scenes. 

On the whole, however, it’s a quirky and charming little film, albeit one that comes with an asterisk: Walliams (who also co-wrote the screenplay) was dropped by his publisher at the end of December amid allegations of sexual harassment against the comedian-turned-bestselling author. That situation is still ongoing, and it’s unclear how it will affect the film’s fortunes going forward. However, none of that should reflect on the remaining cast and crew of the movie, particularly not its young star. Bell gives her all to this performance — it just happens to be in the service of playing a horrible little girl.

Grade: B-

“Fing!” premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. It is currently seeking distribution.