This movie was heartfelt and delightful from the very beginning. Seeing kids act like kids, but in 80s garb, made my day. It made me think... what more do you need to be happy? Ah... to be able to rock the side ponytail with no repercussions... Sigh.
Tom Hanks was wonderful in this film. Completely enthralling. He captivated me from the moment he took the screen. Seeing him run around in patterned tighty whities, trying to find something to cover himself was sweet. He just really seemed to pull of the youthfulness. I completely bought that he wasn't just playing a kid, but really was a kid stuck in a body that was all stretched out and hard to handle.
The dynamic between him and his best friend was good, though I thought a slightly stronger child actor would have been able to pull it off better. As the dominant member of that friendship, watching Tom Hanks look to the kid to help him find a place and negotiate bank transactions, etc, was just delightful. When he had to spend the first night in his hotel alone, I wanted to jump into that film set twenty years ago and tell him everything was going to be alright. Super sweet.
The dynamic between Josh and Susan was super weird. I never quite got comfortable with that. I know I am a super prude (which T told me throughout this movie no less than fifty times), but kids in sexual situations with adults is never okay. Even in silly fantasy scenarios. That freaked me out and made me super uncomfortable. It would have been better if Susan didn't want him so badly. It was just terrifying. And then... the "maybe you could contact me in ten years" scene at the end... Also too much for me. Seriously lady, keep it together. Think it through.
That said, the best moment in the whole movie was when Josh morphs back into a kid in Tom Hank's fancy suit. It drags along the ground, and he turns back to look at Susan. Seeing the innocence and confusion in his face as he struggles with having taken on more than any kid should have to... was a touching moment that was really well shot.
It was good to be reminded he was still so small and young, and that he had no place in the world of the "big".
All in all, I am glad the film treated this as an ideal scenario, and not some realistic imagining of what it looks like when young people run away from home and end up in big cities. I wasn't ready for Josh to pimp himself out to various male clientele on the streets of New York. I wasn't ready for him to lose twenty pounds and be picking through garbage. I wasn't ready for him to go to jail and be taken advantage of even more... I'd much rather see him designing new toys with a Keep Out sign on his office door.
Awesome movie. It seems sad that I didn't see it before now.
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