Most critics like Big a good deal, and the praise gathers almost entirely around Tom Hanks. Review after review dwells on how he plays a thirteen-year-old in a grown man’s body without tipping into caricature, the slapstick balanced against fear and vulnerability. Penny Marshall’s direction earns the next share of credit, chiefly for keeping the comedy small and unforced and for steering the awkward business of a boy in an adult romance clear of crassness. Several reviews rank it above the other late-80s body-swap comedies, and the giant piano scene is named more than once.
The reservations are mild and cluster around the script rather than the performance. Time Out finds the plot predictable and the ending saccharine, and a few warm notices stop short of enthusiasm. The one real dissent is The New Yorker, where Pauline Kael sees a formula fantasy, tactfully made but tepid, selling childhood back to adults. Nobody else shares her coolness; the spread is otherwise narrow.