- Film Review
- Reviewed By Peter Freedman
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4 out of 5
Tom Hanks received his first Academy Award nomination for his fine performance in this goofy comedy (he made up for not winning by being awarded consecutive best actor Oscars - for Philadelphia and Forrest Gump - in the 1990s). He plays a 12-year-old boy transplanted by a carnival wishing contraption into a man's body, and his portrayal of a simple but sincere guy in a cynical world foreshadows his role as Gump. Elizabeth Perkins also makes an impact as a co-worker who finds herself strangely attracted to Hanks's little big man. Big may well be a formula fantasy movie, but Penny Marshall's polished direction combined with Hanks's gauche charm make it the best of the spate of body-swap movies turned out by Hollywood in the late 1980s.
Plot Summary
Comedy starring Tom Hanks. At a fairground fortune-telling booth, 12-year-old Josh Baskin wishes that he could be "big". The next morning he is astonished to find himself fully grown. He soon learns that, in the adult world, being a grown-up is not all that it is cracked up to be.
Cast and crew
Cast
- Josh Baskin
- Tom Hanks
- Susan Lawrence
- Elizabeth Perkins
- "Mac" MacMillan
- Robert Loggia
- Paul Davenport
- John Heard
- Billy Kopeche
- Jared Rushton
- Young Josh
- David Moscow
- Scotty Brennen
- Jon Lovitz
- Mrs Baskin
- Mercedes Ruehl
- Mr Baskin
- Josh Clark
- Cynthia Benson
- Kimberlee M Davis
- Freddie Benson
- Oliver Block
- Cynthia's friend
- Erika Katz
- Gym teacher
- Allan Wasserman
Crew
- Director
- Penny Marshall
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