Janet Maslin of The New York Times praised Hanks's performance, writing "Wide-eyed, excited and

wonderfully guileless, [he] is an absolute delight, and the film is shrewd in relieving him of the
responsibility to behave furtively and hide his altered condition."[27] Gene Siskel of the Chicago
Tribune felt "Hanks proves himself to be an adept comedian here"; however, he wrote the film "is at
its best when romance blooms at a toy company where Elizabeth Perkins is an executive and Hanks
has become a star vice president with his innocent approach to picking best-selling toys." [28] Roger
Ebert, in his Chicago Sun-Times review, wrote: "Big is a tender, soft-hearted, and cheerful movie,
well-directed by Penny Marshall and with a script by Anne Spielberg and Gary Ross that has a lot of
fun with simple verbal misunderstandings ...Hanks, who had a tendency to push too hard, I thought,
in Nothing in Common, this time finds a vulnerability and sweetness for his character that's quite
appealing."[29]

On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film scored a "Certified Fresh" 98% rating based on
80 reviews, with an average rating of 7.90/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Refreshingly
sweet and undeniably funny, Big is a showcase for Tom Hanks, who dives into his role and infuses it
with charm and surprising poignancy."[34] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 73
out of 100, based on 20 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews." [35] Audiences polled
by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale. [36]