Twelve-year-old Josh Baskin lived with his parents and sister, Rachel, in Cliffside Park, New Jersey. Every year the town set up a fairground for kids and families, and this year young Josh Baskin would make sure he was there. Rumour had it that there was going to be a giant rollercoaster at the fair. It had come at just the right time, for Josh Baskin was hoping to impress a pretty blonde girl named Cynthia Benson. But when he went to go on the ride they wouldn’t let him on, saying he was too small. Josh felt the bitter sting of humiliation; it was a feeling he would not soon forget. The other kids made fun of him: “Get lost, shrimp!” What were you supposed to do at a fairground if you couldn’t go on the rides? Josh wandered over to a strange machine sitting alone at the edge of the fair, whose gimmick was that it claimed to grant wishes. Josh was curious; he put a coin in the machine and wished he were big. To his surprise, the machine printed out a message that said “Your wish is granted.” When he woke up the next morning, Josh had become an adult.
In this movie, Tom Hanks plays a child trapped in a grown-up’s body. Somehow, this overgrown child seems to make better decisions than any of the adults around him. In no time at all he lands his dream job, and falls in love. He has the heart, spontaneity and joie de vivre of a child. He’s blunt and honest, but with a sense of right and wrong. He feels no pride, or fear, or worry about the future. There had been no years to repress the important things, or to strip him of his courage and imagination. How many adults still listen to the voice of the child they once were? How many adults can honestly say they still live their lives with that generous, carefree innocence?
Like all children Josh Baskin loved toys, so naturally he worked at a huge toy company. While all his colleagues focused on marketing and figures, he knew what children really wanted: fun. A trinket might amuse a kid for a while, but would be quickly forgotten. The slightest thing might irk them, or bore them. Toys might seem like futile things, when in fact they are the catalyst of a child’s imagination. With a handful of lead soldiers the imagination can make wars and heroic quests, or let you pretend you’re on a football field playing in front of a thousand fans when you’re kicking a beach ball around. Who doesn’t remember making up love stories with a doll, or exploring the world with a cow-boy hat, a slingshot or a water pistol? Children live in a thousand worlds, but the adults they become inhabit just one.
Tom Hanks made his name with this role; Big was the beginning of his success. His performance perfectly captured child-like candour, and movie-goers would see him capture this innocence again, many years later, when he played Forrest Gump. Tom Hanks is one of the world’s most beloved stars, no doubt because of his ability to help us find the child who sleeps within us all.
Alan Alfredo Geday