Tom Hanks Fantasy Comedy Classic Streaming On Hulu Is Larger Than Life
Everybody has their favorite Tom Hanks movie, whether it’s Castaway, Forrest Gump, That Thing You Do, Saving Private Ryan, or Joe Versus the Volcano. Always an actor with range and comedic timing that’s only further elevated by his charisma, Hanks delivers one of his most memorable performances in 1988’s Big, which is currently streaming on Hulu. If you’ve never had your physical being transformed by a coin-operated fortune teller machine after making a life-altering wish, not knowing that it would actually come true, then watching Big is the next best thing as you’ll find yourself living vicariously through Tom Hanks’ Josh Baskin, a thirteen-year-old who learns first-hand what it means to put on his big boy shoes after transforming into an adult overnight.
Simple Premise, Big Payoff
If you’ve never seen Big, you’ll be surprised by how simple its plot actually is, but will soon understand how sometimes less is more. When Josh Baskin (David Moscow) finds himself tired of being a short-statured teenager who can’t even get onto the cool rides at the local carnival, he gets more than he bargained for after approaching a fortune-telling arcade machine called Zoltar and wishing that he was big. Zoltar, who’s actually unplugged when Josh makes his wish, uses his mysterious powers to make Josh’s wish his command.
Waking up in his twin-sized bed the next day, Josh is horrified to find out that he’s now portrayed by Tom Hanks, as he’s a full-grown man who must have aged into adulthood overnight.
Realizing that his wish came true in Big, Josh has to figure out his next moves, but only after traumatizing his mother, who has no clue who the strange man posing as her son is, or where he came from. Confiding in his best friend, Billy (Jared Rushton), Josh learns that the carnival left town, and it’ll likely take several weeks for him to cross paths with the mysterious Zoltar machine again, so he might as well take advantage of the fact that his wish to be big actually came true.
Playing With The Big Boys (And Girls)
After renting out a dilapidated New York City apartment (and crying like a child when he hears gunfire outside of his new, and hopefully temporary home), Josh needs to find a way to support himself in Big while he attempts to track down the Zoltar machine and make things go back to normal. Fully understanding the assignment, Tom Hanks pivots from acting like a child trapped in a man’s body to acting like the best adult that Josh could pretend to be while trying to navigate himself through life with his new body and identity.
Picking up a low-level job working for the MacMillan Toy Company, Josh quickly wins the adoration of the company’s owner, Mr. MacMillian (Robert Loggia). Since Josh is still in actuality a 13-year-old boy in Big, his insights into toy trends make him a valuable asset to the company, and he quickly secures a job as the company’s Vice President of Product Development after two jam out on a massive walking piano in the middle of FAO Schwarz for everybody to see.
On the romantic front, Josh wins the affection of his colleague, Susan Lawrence (Elizabeth Perkins), who’s drawn to him thanks to his youthful exuberance and passion for the job. Slowly but surely leaving his old life behind in favor of his new one, Josh has to figure out where he actually belongs because to his parents and authorities he’s a missing person’s case, and to Billy, he’s a flaky friend portrayed by Tom Hanks, and not David Moscow.
Realizing that being big isn’t all it’s cracked out to be (queue the needle drop), Josh needs to find a way to make peace with leaving his new life behind before finding the Zoltar machine and getting back to his old one.
Streaming Big On Hulu
GFR SCORE
When it comes to earlier Tom Hanks pictures, Big is a powerhouse fantasy comedy that only he could pull off so convincingly. From the first scene when Josh wakes up realizing that he made a huge mistake by wishing to be big, to his mental transformation from a naive teenager to a functional adult living in the city, Tom Hanks’ excitability and sense of dynamic that allows him to reel it in for the more sentimental scenes cannot be replicated, and results in a larger-than-life performance that’s equal parts silly and thoughtful.
At least for my money, there’s nothing more satisfying to watch than a grown man playing with action figures and skateboards, not because of a midlife crisis, but becuase he hasn’t even fully passed through adolescence yet and doesn’t know any better.
As of this writing, you can stream Big with an active Hulu subscription.
