Directed by: Penny Marshall
Starring: Tom Hanks, Elizabeth Perkins, John Heard, Jared Rushton, Mercedes Ruehl, Robert Loggia, Jon Lovitz
Big overcomes its formula plot to establish something more special. Twelve-year-old Josh Baskin, after being humiliated in front of his crush after being denied an amusement ride entry due to his height, drops a quarter in an old fortune teller machine and wishes to be big. The next morning, Josh awakes in an adult body in the form of Tom Hanks. His mother doesn't believe him when he says he's her son, and he lights out for New York City with his best friend Billy (Rushton), who does believe the adult is really Josh.
While researching where to find the machine which turned him into an adult so he can reverse the process, Josh nabs a job at a toy manufacturing company and a promotion after he plays a duet with his friendly boss (Loggia) on the FAO Schwartz floor piano (in a famous scene, see the picture above). Josh makes an enemy of longtime company executive Paul (Heard) and a friend in Susan (Perkins), who would like to become something more,
Big is able to sidestep a potential ick factor with the burgeoning romance involving Susan and Josh. She doesn't think much of it that Josh's midtown loft is full of toys and a bunk bed. When Josh tells Susan he gets to be on top, it isn't in the manner you would think. The Oscar-nominated Hanks performance depends on Hanks' body language and mannerisms to convince us there is always a twelve-year-old inside the adult body. It's an adept comic performance which is both sympathetic and touching.
Above all, Big is warmly funny while not recycling gags about a kid in an adult body. It is written with wit and the understanding that the adults may not know everything about being a kid, even though they were all once one.
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