Big

I saw the movie Big (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big) some time back. I had earlier seen it about 20 years ago. It was a sweet movie about a 13 year old boy who is frequently told by people around him that he can't do this or that because he is not big (read: old) enough. So he goes to a fair in his town with his parents where he sees a machine (somewhat like a weighing machine where you drop a coin and out comes a card with your weight printed on it).

He is told that the machine will grant him whatever he wishes. He wishes that he becomes big. The machine grants him the wish. The boy goes home without thinking much more of it (he still remains "small").

Next morning he wakes up to find that he has indeed become big, so old that he (Tom Hanks) is now about 30 years old and the pants he was wearing the previous night is woefully short now.


Even his mom mistakes him for a burglar and shoos him away. There is a very funny scene where he enters the house and his mom looks at him and screams "Don't come, go away" (figuring he is a burglar) while Tom Hanks thinks that she is upset that he has come in wearing dirty shoes. So he goes back out, cleans himself and comes back in as he presumably used to do frequently.

Since him mom throws him out he finds his way to the city, a big man but a 13 year old in mind. He gets a job as a designer of children's toys where he becomes very successful. And then falls in love with a woman who can't resist his boyish smile and charm.

Cut to the end of the movie. Being big was a nice interlude but he misses his mom and wants to go back. The fair has now come to the big city and the same machine is there where he is about to make a wish, now to become small again.

His ladylove finally locates him standing in front of the machine. He tells her then that he really is a 13 year old boy who happened to become an adult overnight as a result of the wish he made. And that he wants to go back to his mom and his family that he has left behind. He asks her whether she would also like to become small and go back to being a 13 year old again. She shudders and says "No". 

The movie ends with Tom Hanks now back to being how he was and the lady after dropping him at his house drives back to her life in the city looking very sad.

I wonder. How was it for the woman to fall in love with a "man" for his boyish charms only to find that he was a boy after all. How is it to be so totally in love without an inkling that he was not an appropriate mate for reasons that she could never fathom earlier.

This was a lovely movie, very funny with an interesting story line and a poignant ending.