Gigantic

Plot synopsis:
Not so typical boy meets girl story, that is delusional and twisted. Quite a bit like this media driven life since the main characters all act like they are at the top of their game (Like they are on some sort of metaphysical stage.). Intermixed with the controversy of brutal and crazy honesty, there lies a hair of truth. It's the hair of truth you have to see to feel. Side-lining the story the male main character has a recurrent assailant which breaks up the stream of events, in a mysterious way. The modern delusions held by the main character are complex and hard to understand, even as the movie comes to a close. However the delusions are made real leaving you really pondering something outside the box (brain). As the story progresses and you learn more about the main character, his life gets entangled with those you are introduced to. One is an old school friend, the other is a beautiful girl with an odd family. At times the drama appears as if it will turn depressing, dwelling on the repressed emotions the characters are a part of. However Gigantic manages to string you along until all is well and you are pondering whether such a story is possible in real life.

Tags: romantic, psychedelic

Review:
Some jaded film-goers might feel they've watched Paul Dano portray Brian's charisma-free loner cousins overplaying their quirkiness in far too many Indie projects.
In 'Gigantic' Brian possesses the stubborn ambition to adopt a Chinese baby - a plot contrivance which appears designed to distract from his stupefying dullness.
Despite being single, earning little money and suffering from violent hallucinations, he considers himself good parent material, and an irresponsible adoption agency is helping him achieve his goal.The story begins when Al Lolly, an overweight businessman with chronic back problems, visits the gloomy warehouse where Brian is employed.
He doggedly obliges in an underground car park, but their romance doesn't amount to much - almost immediately Happy expresses her own quirkiness with lame attempts to escape the relationship, while Brian continues obsessing about Chinese babies.
Like it or leave it - that's how love is in Indie-World.'Gigantic's' script is a strangely schizophrenic beast - the main story is the lovers' moth-eaten romance, but the sub-plots contain some offbeat black humor, providing John Goodman, Ed Asner, Jane Alexander, Clarke Peters and Zooey Deschanel with opportunities to create some original characters.
After reading the comments and reviews on this page for the film Gigantic, I felt compelled to register an account on IMDb and add my own voice to the apparently confused chorus.
I've read comments that have mentioned 'believability' of certain scenes and plot points, but I think these types of viewers were doomed to misunderstand the film from the very beginning (and isn't it always these viewers who do choose to comment?
The debut from Matt Aselton is far from perfect, but certainly provides high expectations for his next film.Blessed with a terrific cast including Paul Dano (Little Miss Sunshine, There Will Be Blood), indie favorite Zooey Deschanel, John Goodman, and veterans Ed Asner and Jane Alexander; Aselton creates some odd characters that somehow connect not only to each other, but also to the viewing audience.The film does sometimes suffer from the mistake of many first time filmmakers ...
The brutal attacks/images by the homeless guy (played by comedian Zach Galifianakis) and the massage parlor scene are two that jump to mind.On the other hand, and more importantly, there are a few scenes that are remarkable and really provide hope for Aselton's next film: When Zooey first awakens from her nap in the store, she and Dano have an exchange that sets the stage for their relationship; the family dinner without Zooey; John Goodman on his kitchen floor and at the doctor; Jane Alexander on the balcony with Zooey proves what an effective and elegant actress Ms. Alexander remains as she is the first one to connect with Zooey on an adult level.
Refreshing for a first time director, Matt Aselton has managed to bring a new dimension to the acting repertoire of his leads, Zooey Deschanel, Paul Dano, and veteran, John Goodman.Deschanel in particular shines brightly in Gigantic, as a privileged, underachieving heiress who is facing up to becoming a woman  evidenced in the empathy her character, 'Happy', somehow manages to elicit.Gigantic certainly plays against gender expectations, as Deschanel's love interest, Dano, looks to fix a situation in order to mend himself, indeed, this is a chick flick that should also appeal to guys; funny, rude, touching, violent, gentle, brutal, kindly, inconsiderate.Once you overcome the gimmick of the unique premise  mattress salesman who wants to adopt a Chinese baby  this really becomes an enjoyable watch, peppered with cool, sharp dialog and seasoned with warm, elevated charm.
It is a movie in which the viewer is invited to contemplate how inner turmoil can be overcome if one doesn't give up on what one wants.Shot in 35mm, it is also a beautiful thing to behold, and with a soundtrack (scored by Roddy Bottum) that includes Animal Collective, there is much about Gigantic which stays with the viewer long after its conclusion  not least the movie's Fight Club character: as Zach Galifianakis portrays a brutal representation of disconnection..
I'm surprised at the so many negative reviews that Matt Aselton's 'Gigantic' received, as I found it to be quite a charming, funny, absorbing and well-made little film.
I suppose not everyone appreciates subtle storytelling and that much of 'Gigantic' is open to interpretation (for example the homeless man, whom I interpreted as Brian's alter-ego).The quirky premise may appear a little awkward on the surface.
John Goodman, Ed Asner and Jane Alexander and Zack Galifianakis are great.Aselton's debut is a fun and absorbing watch and it lingers in mind long after the end credits have rolled....though perhaps it's not for everyone given the negativity, but so what.
Brian and Harriet are drawn to each other sexually but cannot connect emotionally and the Chinese baby only makes things worse.Alternately comical and melancholic this surreal story is about people managing their angst.
'Gigantic' is the debut film from writer/director,Mark Aselton (a name to look out for in the future).
It concerns a mattress salesman (played by Paul Dano,from 'There Will Be Blood','Little Miss Sunshine',and others)who receives an odd customer (John Goodman),who's daughter (Zooey Deschanel)falls asleep on one of the beds in the show room.
If you are looking for some movie to make you forget about the gray life and all of its happenings, don't watch Gigantic.
It suffers from all the clichés that make people hate indie films: mumbling characters that irritate the crap out of you, no script to speak of, jokes where the audience is evidently supposed to imagine the punchline, and so much cynicism you wonder why the writer didn't just kill himself when he was 16.Throw in a bunch of homophobic wisecracks, anti-Semitic slurs, racial slurs of all shapes & sizes, and an opening scene of animal cruelty (American Humane did not monitor this film), and here you have a bona fide painful experience.I think I laughed more watching "Platoon" than I did watching this dud of a movie.Please don't think all indie films are like this.
I love Zooey, but it was painful watching her and Paul Dano play their typical personalities in this wannabe symbolic bullsh!t quirky comedy.
Zooey's quirky personality is played out in this movie, and Paul Dano is a horrible casting role for the protagonist, if you can call him that.
To me, a blatant association of our elitist political system with sex.At certain points in the film the lead is attacked by someone whom he describes as a homeless guy, but is at times dressed as a worker.
Some viewers have over-interpreted this profoundly mediocre film made somewhat more tolerable by the presence of Zooey Deschanel, Ed Asner,John Goodman and Jane Alexander.
Asner and Goodman masticate the scenery in high fashion, Deschanel is, as usual, strangely charming and Alexander has one crucial scene where she reassures Zooey's character that she can make it with Dano's character and the Chinese child he has just adopted.
I really enjoyed the setting and the characters played by Goodman, Deschanel, Dano, and the entire supporting cast.But many parts of the plot were not believable, or even nonsensical.
The film resorts to passé plots (quiet boy meets sexy rich girl), but where it is inventive, it's inexplicable (the stalker, the lifelong interest to adopt, ...).Goodman is a favorite of mine anyway, and his character here serves to balance the meekness of the other leads.It was worth my time, however if it wasn't able to get Goodman or the other leads, it would have been a forgettable film.TP in Texas.
The film however disappoints in various levels mostly in all the side stories - for one thing although I couldn't believe I was seeing Galfianakis again this year, I couldn't quite make out of what to do with the homeless man every time he appeared.
Zooey Deschanel is fantastic, as always, and Paul Danno was surprisingly good (i think, i am not too sure, really...) but the script and the situations all seemed kind of forced and unnatural, which i kind of got the idea was at least partially the point.
Though i would definitely recommend watching this film, it is not because its good(because its really not), and it is not because i even really liked it(because i really didn't), but simply because once watching it, for better or worse, i couldn't get it out of my head..
Early on in the film Zooey Deschanel falls asleep on a mattress in a store where future love interest, Paul Dano, works as a salesman.
Any viewer lucky enough to have dozed off at a similar time would have not missed much, and would still be able to have a good stab at guessing how it all wrapped up when the credits kicked in.The script, written by first and hopefully only time director Matt Aselton, mistakes eccentricity for character and randomness for humour and contains bizarre and heavy-handed symbolism that bears no relevance to what little plot there actually is.
Paul Dano wants to adopt a specifically Chinese baby and Zooey Deschanel doesn't seem to really want anything, apart from possibly to be loved, and both of them dispassionately amble from scene to scene towards these goals, occasionally interrupted by the odd subplot or two to drag the film out to a standard running time of just over 90 minutes.A depressing and boring waste of both talent and time..
Happy Lolly (Zooey Deschanel) is the daughter of Al (John Goodman) who purchased a mattress for $14k.
Do not waist your money on this movie because you will feel like you have been robbed.As for Zooey Deschanel.
I think she is a great up and coming actress and she did not need to be affiliated with movie like this, She is just too good for this movie and that goes the same with some of the other actors that played in it as well.
I was forty minutes into the movie and I said to myself, I can't believe I keep watching this.Sub-plots were out of left field and superfluous and stretched any sense of credibility.Did want to tip my hat to Dano, who carried his performance with depth and nuance.
You might well think he has a few screws loose.But that is exactly the role Paul Dano plays as Brian Weathersby, bed salesman.
He has been working on this task diligently for some time and we sense he is getting close.His world is rocked when he meets Zooey Deschanel as Harriet 'Happy' Lolly, who comes into the store to pay for the $14,000 bed that her dad tried out the day before.
Soon he and Happy are seeing more and more of each other, and neither of them is quite sure how the adoption of a baby girl from China might affect that.As he often does, John Goodman steals all of his scenes as Al Lolly, quirky rich father of Happy.
Some might say bits of this film are mundane and were not needed, but that's what makes this film a sensation, to be able to relate to these so called scenes can in fact bring you deeper into the film.However, my only criticism would be the ending, I think it leaves us wondering about too many things.Overall, this is a great film which explores the life of a salesman with a very unique life, not seen very much in many films these days, who falls in love with a customer who leads a very strange life too.
Paul Dano give evidence of maturity in this film, I do not think there is a scene where he smiled.
I read the negative reviews, but I just couldnt believe that a movie with Paul Dano, Zooey Deschanel and John Goodman could be so lousy.
I had no prior knowledge of this movie, I decided to watch it because of Paul Dano - he is definitely in my Top10 actors list and I do not know a movie with him in the lead which is bad or boring (and I have seen most of them with his participation).
And the cast is even and great - especially Paul Dano, Zooey Deschanel, John Goodman - but all the others provide strong and versatile performances.
A little shuffling weed of a movie Gigantic may be, but it does deal in giant-sized subjects: first love; starting a family; being forcibly chucked in at the deep end of maturity.
Unfortunately, the absence of silly bourgeois trifles like heart, charm, or even wit, prevents its elevation to the status of a 'Secretary', 'Juno' or 'Little Miss Sunshine.' The latter's Dano, one of the most fearless young actors working today (let alone 'There Will Be Blood', check out 2001's 'L.I.E.' for some early, brilliant promise) is essentially muzzled here, as Deschanel competes for the distinction of most catatonic cat.When Jane Alexander, playing Brian's mum, finally shows up at the end to talk some sense into Happy, it's like a jet of cool, cleansing water blasting away all that obfuscating mud.
The great Ed Asner and John Goodman, playing Brian and Happy's dads respectively, tear up the screen every time they appear, whether hunting for magic mushroom or hawking up their own brain tumours by willpower alone.
But it's two more stars than the film deserves.Want a fantastic, unselfconsciously quirky indie rom-com about emotionally blunted, poor little rich kids finally facing up to life?
Gigantic has a few funny moments and good performances by John Goodman, Ed Asner and Zooey Deschanel is attractive and has the requisite quirkiness, but I also found the main character Brian to be incredibly dull and the weak link in this film.I'm also never impressed by the use of the "f-word" or for that matter the use of the "n-word" (even when it's said by a black person) when it feels that it's only being used for a cheap shock laugh.There are also too many questions left unanswered in this film.
But, most of all, the main character, Brian, wanted to adopt a Chinese baby since he was eight?
I have absolutely no idea what this character was supposed to be representing, if anything, though his regular appearances which include an implication that he's followed Brian from NYC to somewhere upstate, my money is on "figment of the imagination" -- in which case, FIGHT CLUB did that kind of imaginary- abuser/friend-gone-wild thing twenty times better; there was some consistency to Tyler Durden, there is none with GIGANTIC's Hobo.
The second with real emotion is when Brian's mother talks Harriet out of a panic episode and explains that "nothing's normal".Apparently the scriptwriters are "from literary backgrounds" and thought they were writing a film like a novel, forgetting that novels (like FIGHT CLUB) are typically better than the films that are made from them simply because of the time that is taken to carefully explain certain things; there is little to no explanation of anything in GIGANTIC; while it seems to aim for a character-driven rather than plot-driven film, the end result is that it just kind of meanders about without much to really endear the characters to, much less make one care about what happens to them.
I usually like these quirky little character pieces, but this simply didn't deliver on such promises; the leads, who are the focus of the film, are ultimately kind of bland, and their families seem like caricatures of eccentricity..
Writer/Director Matt Aselton has come up with unique, memorable characters though as weird and messed up as they are, you wouldn't mind being part of the family.The writing is what fascinates me about this movie.
It's got some random acts that happen for no reason and they just crack me up That said, GIGANTIC also has rich characters that stem from America's individuality and the freedom to choose whatever it is that you want to be and that in itself can bring so much pressure on one person.
I believe in greatness in simplicity and GIGANTIC is exactly that.Paul Dano who floored me in Little Miss Sunshine, I also thought he should've been nominated for There Will Be Blood, plays the character Brian in GIGANTIC and Paul proves to us again that he's a young but powerful force to be reckon with.
There's a certain calmness to his performance but he can also deliver a certain commanding stubbornness and he does it just as good as any experienced actor out there which makes him capable of sharing screen time with veterans like John Goodman and Ed Asner and not drowning in their shadows.
The cute Zooey who somehow has the ability to put your guard down when you're at her presence, plays the quirky Happy who's not sure what she wants to do with her life, causing her to be unsure either about letting Paul Dano be a part of her life.
I think it's a feel good movie aimed to let the audience know that you can still pursuit your plans and fall in love at the same time.
GIGANTIC may be Matt Aselton's first feature film but it's good enough to make me a fan and I'm looking forward to his upcoming projects.--Rama's SCREEN--.
If only slick-worries were that of selling fourteen-thousand dollar Swedish beds, and adopting withdrawn Chinese daughters; Brian(Paul Dano) falls into a cloud-like spontaneous sexing of Harriet(Zooey Deschanel), after he's confronted in the 'straight up' sense.I enjoyed the films' great screen-scapes and script.
The End. Again, John Goodman as the mafia-type father of Happy, played by Zooey Deschanel, adds luster and laughs.
Asner is the 80-year old dad of mattress salesman Brian, played by Paul Dano.
The title is very befitting of the gigantic life changing situations Dano and Deschanel are presented within the story.
Gigantic is the story of mattress salesman Brian (Paul Dano).
Dano and Deschanel are both fantastic here, and the film has an interesting and fun spark to it.
Gigantic isn't an amazing work of art, or even a great film, but I had a good time with it.