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Gigantic (2008)
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Reviews Counted:72
Fresh:27
Rotten:45
Average Rating:4.7/10
Consensus: This overly quirky, incessantly whimsical indie is too self-conscious for its own good.
Rated: R [See Full Rating] for language, some sexual content and violence.
Runtime: 1 hr 39 mins
Genre: Comedies
Theatrical Release:Apr 3, 2009 Limited
Synopsis: GIGANTIC’s Brian Weathersby (Paul Dano) isn’t your average 28-year-old man. He sleepily works as a mattress salesman while he tries to fulfill his lifelong dream of adopting a Chinese baby. But... GIGANTIC’s Brian Weathersby (Paul Dano) isn’t your average 28-year-old man. He sleepily works as a mattress salesman while he tries to fulfill his lifelong dream of adopting a Chinese baby. But Brian’s somnambulist state is interrupted by the arrival of Harriet Lolly (Zooey Deschanel), who prefers going by the name "Happy." She stops by the mattress store after her rich, bullying father (John Goodman) buys the most expensive bed on the salesroom floor, and she immediately draws Brian into her world. A romance with Happy beckons, but Brian is close to achieving his goal. Now if he could only avoid the violent attacks of the crazy homeless man who is stalking him.... Like many small black comedies, GIGANTIC is driven by its characters, an indie-rock soundtrack, and some seemingly random elements that set it apart from its studio counterparts. But GIGANTIC’s tiny status doesn’t mean that it is lacking in the casting department. LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE and THERE WILL BE BLOOD have demonstrated Dano’s range, and he plays a fully formed character here. Deschanel (YES MAN) again plays a vibrant, quirky love interest that will be familiar to viewers of indie films like GARDEN STATE and her own work in WEEDS and FLAKES. But the prize should really go to Goodman, who adds authenticity to his character’s strangeness, remaining likable even as he threatens the lives of Brian’s parents. [More]
Starring: Paul Dano, Zooey Deschanel, John Goodman, Ed Asner
Starring: Paul Dano, Zooey Deschanel, John Goodman, Ed Asner, Jane Alexander, Zach Galifianakis
Director: Matt Aselton
Director: Matt Aselton
Screenwriter: Adam Nagata, Matt Aselton
Producer: Mindy Goldberg, Christine Vachon
Studio: First Independent Pictures
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Reviews for Gigantic
This determinedly nonsensical American indie feels like it was assembled in an off-world quirk factory.
The kind of mumbling, lank-haired, achingly self-conscious indie rom-com that gives mumbling, lank-haired, achingly self-conscious indie rom-coms a bad name.
A likable cast brings some charm and humour to Gigantic but it remains an overly mannered, self-conscious effort.
It's kooky, it's quirky, it's dippy, it's trippy, it's loopy, it's screwy – it's indie, and boy, it's annoying.
Has a few moments of offbeat humor and boasts a charming, tender performance, as usual, by Zooey Deschanel, but it often falls flat as a convoluted comedy, drama, mystery and romance. It has too many poorly developed storylines that simmer together for 98
Gigantic is the sort of kitchen sink movie many first-time directors make, mistakenly believing that they have to throw every idea they've ever come up with into just one film in case they never get a chance to make another.
Gigantic is the sort of kitchen sink movie many first-time directors make, mistakenly believing that they have to throw every idea they've ever come up with into just one film in case they never get a chance to make another.
Gigantic has an idiotic screenplay in which nothing fits together with anything else and in which the two-dimensional characters get knocked down to one dimension as the movie progresses.
By the end, I was thoroughly alienated by the movie's twee, self-satisfied empty-headedness and rooting for the homeless man to do his worst.
An indie comedy that's been kooked to a crisp. Wearing its quirkiness on its sleeve, the whole thing's just too self-consciously strange to engage.
A note to all indie filmmakers (one that will be too late for Matt Aselton, writer (with Adam Nagata) and director of GIGANTIC): quirky is a tone, not a plot.
Seriously? Indie directors are still making painfully twee, self-conscious romances all these years after Sundance birthed so many quirky cliches?
Aselton seems to have ingested a hundred forgettable indie comedies, regurgitated them, and applied the random title Gigantic to what came up.
The protagonist might be so laid-back that he practically disappears, but the picture itself tries much too hard--and stumbles.
The characters and situations are a little too quirky for their own good. Everyone is skewed off-center and, while that can be charming in small measures, Gigantic overdoses on it.
There's nothing really appealing or funny about these people or the predicaments in which they find themselves.
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