Hanks has wish to be ‘big’ fulfilled

Press, 30 December 1988, Page 23

Hanks has wish to be ‘big’ fulfilled

“Big,” which will start at the Savoy theatre today, stars Tom Hanks as a 12-year-old boy who has been transformed into a 35-year-old man by a carnival wishing machine. It is one of the most challenging roles ever played by Hawks, the star of “Splash,” “Volunteers,” “The Money Pit,” “Nothing in Common” and "Dragnet.”

When Hawks wakes up to find that his wish to be “big” (in order to woo the class beauty) has been mysteriously granted, Josh is confused and frightened at being thrust into the adult world, for which he is utterly unprepared. Only when he gets his first job, with a toy company run by Robert Loggia, does he discover that being “big,” as he always suspected, has definite advantages: freedom, money to spend, unlimited toys and junk food. But he is not prepared for what happens when he attracts the attention of a co-worker, played by Elizabeth Perkins.

Perkins, who co-starred with Rob Lowe and Demi Moore in "About Last Night ... ,” plays a tightly wound lady executive on her way up, who becomes involved with a very unlikely “childman.” Perkins’s current attachment, a fellow toy company executive, sees the shy newcomer, with his uncanny knack for anticipating the whims of children, as a dangerous rival, but Perkins, who has never met a man like Josh before, sets her cap for him, assuming that he knows as much as she does about the rituals of corporate romance.

Only when they spend their first night together bouncing on a trampoline does she realise that there really is something different about Josh.

His playful, exuberant approach to life, and his truthfulness awaken the child in her, and in the course of their love affair, he starts to change, too — buffeted by responsibilities, and a more complex emotional life than he ever imagined.