Big Featuring Tom Hanks - Movie Review Example

MOVIE REVIEW: BIG FEATURING TOM HANKS [School] Number] September This paper shall provide acritique of the 1988 comedy movie entitled “BIG” which features award-winning actor Tom Hanks. It is a story of a 12-year old boy who makes a wish to become a grown-up man. The boys wish was granted and he became an instant adult. This movie shall talk about adolescence, the painful process of growing-up, adolescent development and behavior, and the role and support of the family during this crisis. Keywords: adolescence, adolescent development, adolescent behavior, family relationships, crisis. Movie Review: “BIG” Featuring Tom Hanks The top-grossing movie “Big” is a story of a twelve-year old boy, Josh Baskin, who makes a wish to a fortune-telling machine called Zoltar Speaks, and wishes that he were "big." He wanted to become an adult after a humiliating incident in the carnival ride that he was not allowed to take because he was too short. His plan to impress a girl failed and he was completely embarrassed by the carnival incident so he wished to become an adult. The next morning, he awakens to find that he is already a 35-year old man, in the person of Tom Hanks, and no one will believe his explanation of his abrupt change even his own mother. He was forced to leave his house because he was accused by his mother of kidnapping her son, so he rented a cheap hotel room in New York together with his friend Billy. There he also landed an entry job at the Mac Millan Toy Company and later on, he meets by chance the owner of the toy company who promoted in an executive position because he was impressed by his happy-go-lucky disposition in life. While at the firm, he meets a beautiful young lady, who is a colleague who is also an executive, Susan Lawrence, in the person of Elizabeth Perkins. This lady was over-won by his boyish charm and soon falls in love with him (Parish, p. 51). While at work, Susan pressures him to come-up with proposals for new line of toys and because of this pressure, Josh felt that he was not yet ready to become an adult with serious responsibilities. Towards the end of the movie, the Josh realizes that he misses being a kid, and goes back to find the wish-granting machine to transform him back to a youth. Josh was reunited with his family. Moral Significance of the Movie The moral lesson in this movie is that children’s outlook in life is dependent on how well his or her parents raise their children, by giving them all the attention, affection and proper guidance, so that they will grow-up to be contented, happy and responsible adults. Benjamin Wolfman (1988, p.5) in his report stated that: “Adolescence is a developmental phase in human life. Some aspects of adolescence are determined by biochemical processes common to all human beings. These are the basic, natural laws of transition from prenatal life, childbirth, infancy and childhood through adolescence, young adulthood, middle age and into old age. No human being goes through the same biological and psychological changes. Environmental, physical, and psychosocial factors may considerably affect the course of physical and mental growth.” In the movie, Josh as a young boy, felt some insecurities in his life which made him want to wish to become an adult so he can do thing that only adults have the privilege of doing. In this stage, Josh no longer need parental care compared to a toddler, yet he still no prepared to take responsibilities in life because of his young age. He is just a typical adolescent who has “outgrown the need of parental care but not yet ready to take adult responsibilities. They do not want to be overly dependent on their parents, but are unable to take part in the interdependent system of adulthood” (Wolfman, 1988, p.5). When Josh’s wish was granted and became an adult in the person of Tom Hanks, although he looked like an adult because of the biological changes in his body, he still has the immaturity of a young boy because when he was faced with pressures in work, relationship with his girlfriend and his colleagues, he still cannot fully understand the consequences of his actions, which only goes to show that his level of maturity to comprehend serious matters is low. Part of the reason why he wished to be an adult is because he wanted to prove that he is no longer a young boy and wanted to be taken seriously and wanted to impress a girl. This is the stage when a young man has developed feelings of admiration and infatuation towards the opposite sex, which an adolescent usually undergoes. This is already considered a sign of puberty. Most of the time, when adolescents do not get what they want at the exact time that they want, they have the tendency to rebel from their parents. “They rebel against childhood dependence, but before they reach interdependence, they crave independence and tend to be rebellious”(Wolfman 1998, p.5). Role of Parent during a Child’s Development to an Adolescent Adolescence is not just a time hormonal changes and biological changes in the bodies of the child, but also transformations and realignment of family relations. The parents of the child play a major role on how to raise good and responsible adolescents. Adolescents develop best when they live and develop in a supportive home and family environment. The feeling of being loved, understood and paid attention to by parents help them avoid high-risk activities, regardless of the fact that they came from a one-parent or two-parent household (Kipke, 1999, p.56). According to Belsky and de Haan (2011): “Parenting and other developmental experiences influenced the developing brain of the adolescent. There is ever-emerging evidence that experience shapes the developing brain in humans. In this review, we focus virtually exclusively on research that has endeavored to measure parenting in some manner- but not characteristics of parents known to influence parenting, like maternal depression - and structural and/or functional aspects of the brain”. It is important that parents are always present to supervise the adolescent or teenage child. Communication is the key to keep an open relationship between the parent and the child. Studies show that many teen-age drop-outs from school came from broken families or living with no parents, but only supervising guardians to watch over them. It is this critical stage when young children need their parents to guide them in very decision that they make, and see to it that the choose the right path, hang-out with friends who are good influence to him or her and give proper advice to them in every step of the way. Factors Affecting Behavior of the Child Therefore, transition from childhood to adulthood is uneven, often disharmonious process of biological maturation, complicated by sociocultural factors. Adolescence always represents a transition from childhood to adulthood, with a great, many inevitable problems. Contemporary adolescence is also a transition from traditional education methods and a conservative value system toward a rapidly changing, technological and highly complex social system. Today’s adolescents are exposed to a changing sociocultural environment superimposed upon the biological process of change (Wolfman 1998). Conclusion To conclude, an adolescent’ success in life is attributable to his parents’ guidance and support from his family. The adolescent will turn-out a good child to his parents if from the beginning, the parents teach him the proper values, instill and inculcate discipline and responsibility at a young age, so that they will be develop to become responsible and strong to face future endeavors. “An adolescent’s self-esteem and well-being have been related to supportive and close family relationships”(Lerner, Lerner and Finkelstein, 2001 p. 480). References Belskey, Jay and de Haan, Michelle. (April 2011) Annual Research Review: Parenting and Children’s Brain Development: The end of the Beginning. The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. Vol 52, Issue 4, pages 408-428. Hayman, Laura Lucia, Mahon, Margaret M. and Turner, J. Rick. (2002). Health and Behavior in Childhood and Adolescence. New York, NY, Springer Publishing, Inc. Jaffe, Michael L. (1998) Adolescence. USA: John Wiley and Sons, Inc. Kipke, Michael D. (1999) Risks and Opportunities: Synthesis of Studies on adolescence: Forum on Adolescence. Washington, DC, USA: National Academies Press. p. 56. Lerner, Jacqueline, Lerner, Richard M. and Jorden Filkenstein. (2001). Adolescence in America: A-M. Sta. Barbara, California: ABC.CLIO Inc. p. 480. Parish, James Robert. (2004). Tom Hanks: Actor. New York, NY: Facts on File, Inc. p.51 Wolfman, Benjamin B. (1988) Adolescence: Biological and Psychosocial Perspectives. Westport CT, USA: Greenwood Publishing Group. Read More