BIG is the film that enlist Tom Hank's name to a prestigious status as a bankable comedian, also magnifies his comedic artistry to the maximum echelon (of course, later we would know he is a much more chameleonic actor whom we could not curb solely in the comedy sector), which attested by his first Oscar nomination, and furthermore, it was a rare instance of the academy members acknowledged a commonly overlooked lighthearted performance.
The film'a hypothesis of dream-comes-true is effortless to some degree (though the Zoltar machine is creepy), and which could have been fabricated into a more adventurous gambit, nevertheless, director Penny Marshall knowingly chose a more familial and kid-friendly approach to liberate the scenario by steeping all the empathy into a syrup called innocuousness, even the inappropriate adult sex scene is sterilized to eschew any dirty thoughts (the most obvious one jumped into my mind is the inter-generational love). Thankfully the result is fairly acceptable, largely owes to Tom Hank's adroit acting skills of being so compelling as a boy trapped inside a man's body at the age of 32; by contrast, with a similar plot, in 13 Going 30 (2004), Jennifer Garner is much flimsier to showcase a child's innate qualities (you can call it gender discrimination if you like, which alas still persists now). I also utterly enjoy a young Elizabeth Perkins playing her adept role as the seasoned type, the glint between her and Mr. Hanks is quite believable, regardless how implausible the story is.
The most praiseworthy merit of the film is that it contains a positive conviction and renders an inner strength to motivate every adult audience to scan oneself and manage to retrieve the most precious quality before it's too late, the pureness once we all possessed.
The film'a hypothesis of dream-comes-true is effortless to some degree (though the Zoltar machine is creepy), and which could have been fabricated into a more adventurous gambit, nevertheless, director Penny Marshall knowingly chose a more familial and kid-friendly approach to liberate the scenario by steeping all the empathy into a syrup called innocuousness, even the inappropriate adult sex scene is sterilized to eschew any dirty thoughts (the most obvious one jumped into my mind is the inter-generational love). Thankfully the result is fairly acceptable, largely owes to Tom Hank's adroit acting skills of being so compelling as a boy trapped inside a man's body at the age of 32; by contrast, with a similar plot, in 13 Going 30 (2004), Jennifer Garner is much flimsier to showcase a child's innate qualities (you can call it gender discrimination if you like, which alas still persists now). I also utterly enjoy a young Elizabeth Perkins playing her adept role as the seasoned type, the glint between her and Mr. Hanks is quite believable, regardless how implausible the story is.
The most praiseworthy merit of the film is that it contains a positive conviction and renders an inner strength to motivate every adult audience to scan oneself and manage to retrieve the most precious quality before it's too late, the pureness once we all possessed.