After a bit of a grim night with IBS and wrecked sleep on a slow Sunday afternoon my wife and I sat down and BIg was on the telly. We’re about four years apart in age, not a big deal at our age but I suppose when it comes to a film I last watched start to finish in 1988 when I was 18 and my wife 14 (we wouldn’t meet until 1995 so don’t panic) it’s interesting when we share a thing we both enjoyed from the 80s.
Anyway, really enjoyed Big. I remember it being a fun story about a kid becoming an adult but I don’t remember the very obvious symbolism about not wishing your childhood away which is so clearly in the premise but then also deftly delivered in the film too.
It’s a story that knows exactly what its theme is and then it plays out at every level, between Hank’s Josh wishing to be an adult and getting “big” but still being a kid, and then losing that young side of him because he’s enjoying the trapping of adulthood, to Elizabeth Perkin’s Susan who has Embraced adulthood and all its horribleness and hanks character brings out the innocence in her. A sort of near mirror of each others stories. Great writing.
Also after binge watching stranger things it’s fun to see an actual Magical film about kids made in the 80s. It was lot more omnipresent and pastel looking with shades of grey rather than the bolder colours on display in stranger things. Over on Reddit, amusingly, someone asked “did kids really run around totally unsupervised during the 80s” my friend you don’t know the half of it. Anyway great film. Lovely watch.