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

Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992)

Here is another case of a fun and engaging story striking it rich at the box office, leaving Hollywood execs dreaming of repeat business with a sequel. The first Home Alone was a delightful romp through one child’s chaotic misadventures of surviving on his own and defending his home. Familiarity doesn’t quite breed contempt this second go around but a change in location isn’t nearly enough to keep Home Alone 2 fresh.

Once again, the McCallister family is travelling for Christmas, only this time they remember to bring Kevin to the airport with them. This small victory turns into defeat when Kevin gets on the wrong plane, ending up in New York City instead of Miami. Once there, he crosses paths with Harry and Marv, the dim-witted bandits he thwarted a year earlier. Kevin must rely on his wits and ingenuity to prevent the Wet Bandits from robbing a toy store and exacting their revenge upon him.

This sequel has plenty of humorous moments but at least half of the laughs stem from the formula laid out in the first film. The writers avoid a total retread by changing up a few pieces of the formula but Home Alone 2 looks a lot like its predecessor if you put it in outline form. Kevin gets separated from his family (this time Kevin is not actually at home), tricks people with movie clips and props, and sets up a series of elaborate traps to thwart the bad guys. Our protagonist also finds time to make friends with and learn a lesson from someone who is scary at first glance.

The centerpiece of this film, as with the original, is Kevin’s funhouse of carnage. This time around, Kevin sets up shop in an empty house undergoing renovations. This change to the formula is innocent enough to be believable but it also allows the writers to escalate the severity of Kevin’s traps because the house is already halfway torn apart and does not need cleaned up after the chaos is over. Almost every single trap sees Harry and Marv enduring physical trauma that would either incapacitate or kill a real person. Where I was supposed to laugh, I sometimes found myself cringing at the injuries that I knew a real person would sustain. For me, the film crossed the line where comedic violence ceases to be comedic.

In the first film, Kevin learned a lesson about the importance of family. This time around, the lesson is about the importance of friendship via a homeless pigeon lady in Central Park. This subplot is a stiff and forced version of Kevin’s befriending of Old Man Marley in the original film. Whereas the Marley developments were sappy but acceptable, it is glaringly obvious that the pigeon lady sequences are there to add some form of emotional depth to the film. We all know that people just want to see Kevin humiliate a bunch of sad-sack criminals. This time around, the John Hughes-penned heartwarming moments are just hollow, unwelcome distractions.

If you liked the original Home Alone, you probably won’t protest about much of what’s in this sequel. Kevin McCallister is still the same cute, clever, sassy kid we met before and the slapstick comedy of Harry and Marv still elicits a few chuckles and laughs. If you look closely, you’ll find out just how much of Lost in New York is repackaged goods but it’s still not a bad comedy sequel. A little disappointing for sure but still a safe distance from the bottom of the pile.

RATING: 2.5 out of 5

Home Alone (1989)

It’s not high art but it’s not low-brow cinema either. Home Alone is one of those rare family comedies that hits all its marks and doesn’t leave you with an aftertaste of cheese.

John Hughes, one of the most successful film scribes in the 1980s turns away from coming-of-age tales fraught with teen angst and sets his sights on family dynamics as told through the eyes of a youngest child in a large family. Through the young Macaulay Culkin, Hughes and director Chris Columbus provide a raucous tale of a little boy left by himself by accident while the rest of his family head to France for Christmas.

Overlooked by his frantic family, young Kevin McCallister has to cope with being the “man of the house” and fending for himself. It’s bad enough that he’s scared of the basement and his neighbor but a pair of bumbling cat burglars has set their sights on his home as well. Out of options, Kevin must defend his home against the invaders.

Very little of what happens in Home Alone is believable, let alone plausible. I mean, how many eight-year-olds do you know that would take on two dangerous men over calling the cops? Also, how many people would fall for the traps that Harry and Marv (Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern) do? Lastly, how many parents would get all the way to the airport and get on the plane before realizing one of their kids is missing?

A cynic would have very harsh things to say about the foolhardiness of Kevin, the idiocy of Harry and Marv, the parenting skills of the McCallisters and the lack of a bond between Kevin and his numerous siblings. The rest of us take the film for what it is- a ridiculously escalated version of something that happens more frequently than most parents would like to admit. I myself was accidentally left at home alone once as a child (though merely for a matter of a few hours) and I’m sure that I am not the only one who can say this.

Home Alone is the kind of film where you can turn your brain off for the most part and just have fun. Many viewers will find themselves getting in touch with their inner child once more as Kevin wanders around in a world full of adults. Using a child as young as Macaulay Culkin was at the time is critical to the film’s success. No one would believe a child younger than eight capable of the things Kevin gets into. Using a teenager would also not have worked because, by that age, a child should know better and just call the cops.

Using a young child works because it enables the filmmakers to hit two powerful demographics. Younger children will be able to identify with Kevin’s sense of wonder at the world of adults. Moms and dads will be able to relate to the panic and worry that fill Kevin’s parents as they try to get home to their son. Everyone meets in the middle for some quirky, slapstick fun. If you really want to overanalyze things, then the slapstick crosses the line of believability numerous times and shouldn’t be so funny. But if you just sit back and enjoy the ride, you’ll be in stitches.

Home Alone does not try to be believable in every way. The filmmakers are keenly aware of how absurd and unlikely their film is and they milk it for all it is worth. The fun is expertly supplemented throughout the film with brief lessons for Kevin and his parents on what it means to be a family. This blend of comedy and moral lesson is a tough feat to pull off without compromising the humor at the wrong moment. Instead, this film is memorable for both its hilarity and its tale about a family in need of some serious mending.

A modern Christmas classic, Home Alone stands out among the myriad of cheesy family holiday tales, many of which came after its release and failed to replicate the harmony of laughs and lessons. If you don’t watch this film every year then you’re missing out.

RATING: 3.5 out of 5