★★★☆☆
The key element of Steven Spielberg’s best movies has always been the unhappy family at the centre. The Hollywood veteran, whose parents divorced when he was 19, has repeatedly reframed his primal distress in genres as diverse as sci-fi, crime thriller, fantasy and action-adventure.
The ache that sits like a stone in the heart of ET the Extra-Terrestrial? That’s the pain of a family still stunned by divorce (Elliot’s father is estranged). The boy who is profoundly wounded by his mother’s affair with his father’s friend in Catch Me if You Can? That’s a detail from Spielberg’s life.
The reluctant father figure in Jurassic Park? The abandoned wife in Close Encounters of the Third Kind? The orphan in The BFG?
