BIG (1988)

Director: Penny Marshall
Writers:  Gary Ross, Anne Spielberg
Stars: Tom Hanks, Elizabeth Perkins, Robert Loggia
Runtime: 104 minutes

Plot: When a boy wishes to be big at a magic wish machine, he wakes up the next morning and finds himself in an adult body.

Review:  Big came out of nowhere during the summer of 1988 and captured universal raves. More than two decades later, despite indications of dating, it remains a popular motion picture. The film is emotionally honest and almost never crass - two things that differentiate it from its contemporaries, which included Like Father Like Son, Vice Versa, and 18 Again. 
Eager to impress the school beauty, Twelve-year-old Josh Baskin asks a carnival wishing machine if he can be "big". Next morning he wakes up as Tom Hanks. Of course there are minor problems like he can no longer get into his jeans and his Mom doesn't recognize him, thinking he is the abductor of her son. Only his best friend Billy (Jared Rushton) realizes that inside the lanky adult is a frightened child.

Big came at a time in Tom Hanks' career when he was transforming from a mostly comedic actor whose range was questioned into his position as this generation's Jimmy Stewart. The range and likeability that would serve him well in pictures like Forrest Gump and Saving Private Ryan is in evidence here. The movie also sports a solid supporting cast aside from Hanks such as David Moscow, Elizabeth Perkins, Robert Loggia, and John Heard.

Although Big is generally lighthearted, it rarely plays for stupid laughs. There are a few of these, but the film avoids sacrificing character integrity for the cheap guffaw and as a result, Big was a pleasure to watch in 1988 and it's no less enjoyable today. As fish out of water stories go, this is one of the best there is.

Reviewed by  S.M. Intisab Shahriyar