Big (1988)

This is the film that cemented Tom Hanks as A-list talent even before he moved away from comedy. Watching this film for the first time in over a decade, it’s not hard to see why both Hanks and this film became so popular. Big takes an emotionally honest look at the struggles that come with growing up by plunging its main character into adulthood overnight. The growing pains may be fantastical but they are familiar enough to make one ponder just how we survive that transition at slow-speed.

When 12-year-old Josh Baskin makes a wish to be big on a carnival fortune teller machine, he gets much more than he bargained for. The next morning he wakes up with the body of a 30-year-old man (Tom Hanks). Unable to explain his transformation to his freaked-out mother, Josh has no one to help him but his best friend Billy (Jared Rushton), who believes Josh’s tale. Together, they find Josh a job and an apartment in New York City while Billy tracks the carnival so Josh can reverse the spell. As Josh climbs the ranks at a toy company he finds it harder to live a double life and struggles to choose between which one matters most to him.

Sometimes these sorts of one-trick-pony films irk me for being completely reliant on one actor to carry the entire film. More often than not, you find this kind of overreliance on a star player in biopics and very weighty dramas requiring the kind of stirring passion and powerful oratory skills that are now clichéd for the most part. With Big, however, we have a delightful break from the norm. This film has to rely on its main star to keep the illusion of a child in a man’s body alive but the illusion being preserved is every bit as important as the performance that Hanks delivers.

The age-change conceit wasn’t exactly fresh when Big hit theaters but most films using it involve two people switching bodies and aimed for easy laughs. Few if any actually involved a full-body transformation or contain subtle commentary as our youthful protagonist comes of age in an adult’s body. Big never takes the easy way out and that matters. Credit goes to the writers for crafting such an emotionally real film. Director Penny Marshall deserves plenty of credit herself for keeping that emotional honesty alive in Josh Baskin.

Tom Hanks pumps all the right youthful energy and naivety into his performance. All of his mannerisms, reactions, and gestures are exactly what a child would do, which adds to the humor of his most expressive scenes. Even when the character starts to drift into accepting adulthood as his reality, there is enough 12-year-old body language to remind us that Josh does not belong there yet.

There are a few clunky story elements that have to be aired, lest you think this film is perfect. Obviously the fantastical storyline is pure fiction and some of the things Josh does to get by in the adult world are hard to swallow. Even in the 1980s, I have a hard time believing a major company would hire someone without discovering a bogus social security number, a falsified degree, and made-up references. Then there is the really-icky-if-you-think-about-it romance between Josh and a colleague.

Even still, this film has enough innocence and fun to make up for these kinds of details. Big manages to say a lot of insightful things about both childhood and adulthood without getting preachy or cliché. That makes for a pretty impressive 104 minutes. The world of children and adults seem light-years apart, yet this film reminds us that some aspects of both are closer than we think or would like to admit. The emotions are the same but we hold them in check better and feel those emotions about different things. Big defies the Hollywood coming-of-age film odds and smashes through the cynicism of adulthood. The fashion and technology are dated but this film is timeless and could not possibly be remade without losing some of the magic. Leave this one alone, Hollywood.

RATING: 4 out of 5