Rating of
2/4
"Big" by Yojimbo
Yojimbo - wrote on 03/26/12
Tom Hanks plays Josh Baskin, a 13 year old who wishes he was "Big" and wakes up in adult's body. There was a huge wave of wish fulfillment films in the 80s including many body swap comedies, this being the original and probably the best. Hanks brings just the right level of goofy, naive charm to the role to the point where I'm pretty sure Brendan Fraser has spent his entire career copying it. All the biggest laughs are when he first deals with his new body and tries to make his way in the adult world, but by the end it descends back into the kind of sappiness that Hollywood screenwriters seem totally unable to resist. There's decent support from John Heard as an amusingly immature work mate but its clunky "what's important in life" message is a little too forced, necessarily appealing to an 80s audience who wanted to feel good about themselves and forget what a bunch of self-serving corporate bastards they were for the other 22 and a half hours of the day...
