MOVIE REVIEWS Big (1988)

• Directed by Penny Marshall
• complete credits: see IMDb entry

• Review

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Nice Concept, But Dragging

Rating: 8 of 10        

What does it mean to be a child? What does it mean to be an adult? - Both these question are posed by this film, both challenging the traditional concept of childhood as well as of adulthood. A boy, Joshua, being granted the wish of being big suddenly gets to be an adult body (Tom Hanks), without the mind of an adult. Inside, he's still a kid. Of course his mother doesn't believe him, so he needs to take refuge in the city and becomes vice president of a toy firm, even gets a girlfriend. The inner child is somehow being affected, he learns and adopts some kind of responsibility and has a sexual relationship. But around him, the adults are not really what they're supposed to be.

His girlfriend, Susan (Elizabeth Perkins), also has some very child-like attributes, likes to play. His boss (great as always: Robert Loggia) shares this acceptance of his inner child. But there are others; the ex-boyfriend of Susan's wearing an iron mask of sincerity, hiding himself from the outside, protecting against being hurt, but his defensive measures turn into aggression and paranoia, giving him characteristics of a bad child, of an envious child. He also won't listen to reason, even less to emotions.

Josh, inside still a kid, likes to play - his job is also sort of a game, and, best of all, his professional occupation are toys. But he is far away from home, has to pretend he's kidnapped Josh to being able to tell his mother he's okay, and he still has his best friend (still a "complete" child) around, with having less and less time to spend time with him. He's an adult now - so he's supposed to be doing adult things. His sexual and emotional relation to Susan is helping him with that, but still, he feels alien in this world of grown-ups.

What is childhood, what is adulthood? Do those terms come naturally, or aren't they constructions dictated and formed by society? What is the natural state? When born, we are children. When we grow up, we become adults. That's what society wants us to believe. But still, we want to play games, want to meet with friends, possess a certain curiosity. But the games we play are different, the stakes have risen - and maybe it's those risen stakes which have formed a new element in life, an element differenciating between child and adult: Responsibility. But still it seems to me that adulthood is like a mask or a suit we are putting on, trying to prove to the world how grown-up we are. Old people don't have to do this any more, which frees them from that sort of social conditioning - grand-parents can play with their grand-children in a much freer way. The Robert Loggia character proves this in the movie - he is much too grown-up to having to prove it all the time.

'Big' works on various levels. It might seem like a kids' movie, but it definitely isn't. It is much more complex than that while at the same time maintaining the façade of childish innocence. 'Big' sort of anticipates some elements of 'Little Man Tate' in respect to how the child is able to deal with the expectations of the outside world. The movie, however, also has it's weak points. One of them is photography, which isn't really showing something special. Also the music stays somehow in the background. That might be appropriate in respect to the film, but it's a bit too conventional. The ending, too, was anything but satisfying, but perhaps dictated by storytelling. Still this is a very refreshing and insightful movie with great performances and also some fun in it, making some interesting points about childhood and society.

April 26th, 1999 / August 15th, 2002