Gigantic
Directed by Matt Aselton
Runtime: 98 min.
Any film that casts Zooey Deschanel as its female lead has already fulfilled its quota of quirkiness, but Gigantic insists on gilding the lily. With her huge, unblinking eyes and deadpan delivery, Deschanel has carved a cinematic niche for herself similar to Mary-Louise Parker's; both women seem extraordinary when glimpsed in ordinary circumstances, turning everyday life into a place in which anything can happen, no matter how surreal.
But Matt Aselton’s Gigantic (which he co-wrote with Adam Nagata) doesn’t just stop with the presence of Deschanel as a woman named Harriet “Happy” Lolly. She’s merely the slightly dim love interest of Gigantic’s real focus, 28-year-old Brian (Paul Dano). A sweet-faced guy not terribly engaged in life, Brian works at a mattress store housed in a dingy warehouse in NYC, in between attempts to fulfill his lifelong dream of adopting a Chinese baby and dodging attempts on his life by a homeless man. With all this (and Deschanel, too), the movie threatens to drown under the weight of its own idiosyncrasies.
Not even Brian’s friends and family are allowed normalcy. One of his co-workers eats goat stew; Brian’s crass brother makes conversation with visiting businessmen while they’re being jerked off at a massage parlor. And when Happy’s father, the large, wealthy hypochondriac Al (John Goodman, having a ball in expensive clothes) stops by the store to buy a mattress and get in a few amusing digs about his gay assistant’s personal life, things only get weirder.
Aselton suffers from the same affliction Wes Anderson exhibits: He has buffed the eccentric details of his characters and his story to such a high sheen that they threaten to blind the audience. Is the Chinese baby a device to peel back the layers of Happy and Brian’s relationship, or an important aspect of who Brian? And why a Chinese baby? Likewise, does the presence of a murderous vagrant mean that Gigantic will eventually turn tragic to prove that anyone as selfless as Brian is will be punished by an unforgiving world?
Gigantic has plenty of questions, but answers are few and far between. Yet there’s still something compelling about watching such a talented cast (including Ed Asner and Jane Alexander as Brian’s elderly parents) navigate the choppy waters of Aselton’s world. Dano, in particular, is a winningly disengaged protagonist, and possibly the only actor working in film today who could out-deadpan Deschanel. Their scenes together have a low-key appeal, as they both battle it out to see who can best mock their emotional response to one another with the thickest veneer of irony. In the end, Gigantic’s title is a misnomer. There’s nothing larger-than-life about a film this obsessed with the minutiae of the determinedly eccentric.
Directed by Matt Aselton
Runtime: 98 min.
Any film that casts Zooey Deschanel as its female lead has already fulfilled its quota of quirkiness, but Gigantic insists on gilding the lily. With her huge, unblinking eyes and deadpan delivery, Deschanel has carved a cinematic niche for herself similar to Mary-Louise Parker's; both women seem extraordinary when glimpsed in ordinary circumstances, turning everyday life into a place in which anything can happen, no matter how surreal.
But Matt Aselton’s Gigantic (which he co-wrote with Adam Nagata) doesn’t just stop with the presence of Deschanel as a woman named Harriet “Happy” Lolly. She’s merely the slightly dim love interest of Gigantic’s real focus, 28-year-old Brian (Paul Dano). A sweet-faced guy not terribly engaged in life, Brian works at a mattress store housed in a dingy warehouse in NYC, in between attempts to fulfill his lifelong dream of adopting a Chinese baby and dodging attempts on his life by a homeless man. With all this (and Deschanel, too), the movie threatens to drown under the weight of its own idiosyncrasies.
Not even Brian’s friends and family are allowed normalcy. One of his co-workers eats goat stew; Brian’s crass brother makes conversation with visiting businessmen while they’re being jerked off at a massage parlor. And when Happy’s father, the large, wealthy hypochondriac Al (John Goodman, having a ball in expensive clothes) stops by the store to buy a mattress and get in a few amusing digs about his gay assistant’s personal life, things only get weirder.
Aselton suffers from the same affliction Wes Anderson exhibits: He has buffed the eccentric details of his characters and his story to such a high sheen that they threaten to blind the audience. Is the Chinese baby a device to peel back the layers of Happy and Brian’s relationship, or an important aspect of who Brian? And why a Chinese baby? Likewise, does the presence of a murderous vagrant mean that Gigantic will eventually turn tragic to prove that anyone as selfless as Brian is will be punished by an unforgiving world?
Gigantic has plenty of questions, but answers are few and far between. Yet there’s still something compelling about watching such a talented cast (including Ed Asner and Jane Alexander as Brian’s elderly parents) navigate the choppy waters of Aselton’s world. Dano, in particular, is a winningly disengaged protagonist, and possibly the only actor working in film today who could out-deadpan Deschanel. Their scenes together have a low-key appeal, as they both battle it out to see who can best mock their emotional response to one another with the thickest veneer of irony. In the end, Gigantic’s title is a misnomer. There’s nothing larger-than-life about a film this obsessed with the minutiae of the determinedly eccentric.
