A warm, funny, and slightly unsettling fantasy-comedy that still works because Tom Hanks fully commits to the child-in-an-adult-body premise. It’s charming, emotionally sincere, and packed with iconic set pieces, even if some of the romance and age-gap implications feel very dated now.
62% ★★★☆☆ (579,298)
Big
Where to watch: Disney
Movie · Fantasy · Drama · PG
1988 · 1h 44m · ★ 62% (579.3K)
Have you ever had a really big secret?
Director: Penny Marshall
Starring: Tom Hanks, Elizabeth Perkins, Robert Loggia
Overview
When a young boy makes a wish at a carnival machine to be big—he wakes up the following morning to find that it has been granted and his body has grown older overnight. But he is still the same 13-year-old boy inside. Now he must learn how to cope with the unfamiliar world of grown-ups including getting a job and having his first romantic encounter with a woman.
Director
Penny Marshall
Production
American Entertainment Partners II L.P., Gracie Films, 20th Century Fox
Cast
Tom Hanks, Elizabeth Perkins, Robert Loggia, John Heard, Jared Rushton, David Moscow, Jon Lovitz, Mercedes Ruehl, Josh Clark, Kimberlee M. Davis, Oliver Block, Erika Katz, Allan Wasserman, Mark Ballou, Gary Klar, Alec Von Sommer, Chris Dowden, Rockets Redglare, Jamie Tirelli, Paul Herman
Where to watch
Disney Plus
Curator Review
Verdict
A warm, funny, and slightly unsettling fantasy-comedy that still works because Tom Hanks fully commits to the child-in-an-adult-body premise. It’s charming, emotionally sincere, and packed with iconic set pieces, even if some of the romance and age-gap implications feel very dated now.
Best for
fans of 80s studio comedies with heart
viewers who like high-concept body-swap or wish-fulfillment stories
people interested in early Tom Hanks star turns
audiences who don’t mind a few uncomfortable retro-comedy elements
Skip if
you’re sensitive to age-gap romance or consent-adjacent discomfort
you want a modern screenplay with sharper social awareness
you dislike sentimental crowd-pleasers
you prefer fantasy films that stay fully whimsical rather than mixing in workplace realism
Overview
Big is one of those late-80s studio movies that feels both effortless and slightly dangerous in hindsight. The premise is pure wish fulfillment, but the movie keeps finding comedy in the practical humiliations of adulthood: office politics, money, loneliness, and the absurdity of being taken seriously before you understand what that means.
Worth noting
Tom Hanks is the engine that makes it work. He plays the role with such open-faced curiosity that the film becomes less about a gimmick and more about the emotional truth of childhood wonder colliding with adult responsibility. The piano sequence remains the movie’s great showcase, but the quieter scenes are what give it staying power.
Bottom line
At the same time, it’s impossible to ignore how much the film’s romantic material now reads as awkward and troubling. That tension is part of its legacy: a beloved crowd-pleaser that also reveals how much mainstream comedies of the era relied on blind spots. Even so, Big remains funny, inventive, and surprisingly tender.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Michael SweatpantsDisco (4★) · 6996 likes
If you skip the first 20 minutes of the movie, it's just the story of an autistic man overcoming his hardships in the workplace.
Eliza (3★) · 3999 likes
This falls under the category of "fun 80s movies that become INSANELY uncomfortable if you think about it for too long"
Patrick Willems (4★) · 3076 likes
It's weird that he and Elizabeth Perkins have sex.
eely (3.5★) · 2503 likes
imagine this movie from the mom’s perspective.
Oliver Swift (4.5★) · 1656 likes
Watching that piano scene is the most fun I’ve had all year