Big (1988)

Big (1988)

7/10

Starring

Tom Hanks

Elizabeth Perkins

Robert Loggia

John Heard

Directed by Penny Marshall

Tom Hanks has been delivering magnificent performances for decades and in the late 80s he gave us another magnificent performance and received a Best Actor Nomination for it too. This movie Big has a plot that sounds just silly, but then the screenplay and the acting is what takes this movie from what could have looked like a silly plot to a masterpiece. That kudos goes to the director who made this happen.

The director here is the late Penny Marshall, she was in full control of this movie and this is not the first time she has delivered something that is just amazing. She had control over another Tom Hanks movie A League of Their Own in 1992.

The movie is about a young man named Josh who lives with his family. This twelve-year-old is having challenges dealing with the world as his height gets in the way of him doing things he wanted. Josh best friend is Billy who is also his next door neighbor.

After an incident made him feel small, Josh made a wish on a fortune teller machine he saw at a carnival. He wished he was big, just a passing thought not expecting much to happen, but he woke up the next morning (at home) and he was now an adult (Tom Hanks).

Faced with this new challenge, he runs from home and now he has to face to world as an adult trying to get by. While still looking for a way to get back to his normal self so he can go back home.

What I really enjoyed while watching this movie now as an adult is that, the things I see Josh do were the things I would have done if it had happened to me. I also recall the way I explored the limits of freedom when I moved out of home and started life as a bachelor. The movie gets its fun as we see the way a twelve-year-old in an adult’s body navigates the work place (which he fails majorly in office politics), romantic entanglement and his relationship with his best friend.

The movie was both a huge critical and commercial success (making over a $150 million on a $18 million budget) plus it also got many other recognition other than the Academy Awards nomination for Hanks and Best Original Screenplay. It is ranked in many lists as one of the best comedies ever made and I do agree.

Big is that one film you get to enjoy every time you see it, and just laugh as this fantasy comedy takes you on an unforgettable ride.