Sophie (Ruby Barnhill) is a 10 year old English orphan. At the witching hour, Sophie spots the Big Friendly Giant (Mark Rylance) who takes her to the Giant world to avoid her alerting the public of their presence. The BFG is actually a vegetarian and the runt of the group. The other giants are bigger, bullies the BFG, and eat human beings. The BFG collects dreams and Sophie comes up with an idea to warn The Queen by manufacturing a nightmare about the human-eating giants.
The Giant world is intriguing both visually and in substance. There may be some holes but it still works. Little Sophie has the required cuteness mixed with a pluckiness. Rylance is great. The adventure could be a lot more adventurous. There is turn before the third act which takes the magic of the story and plants it squarely into the modern world at a specific time. There is one fun joke but mostly, the story loses its magic. There is a way for the movie to fully satisfy its dark fable core but it seems to lose that thread. The movie is still fine but it's missing a truly heartfelt drama. The major difficulty is any comparison to Spielberg's earlier classics. The feeling is different and this will not be one of his celebrated best.
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