DVD Review: Gigantic
"Gigantic" came out on DVD Aug 11th, but I just got a chance to watch it on Demand. I wanted to see this film because I'm a huge fan of both Paul Dano and Zooey Deschanel. They both deliver, but one thing to keep in mind before you see this film is you need to pay attention. I've read lots of other reviews/comments/etc of what people got out of this film and I understand where some of the confusion comes from. I had those moments as well.
'Gigantic' follows Brian (Dano) he's a mattress salesmen in the suburbs of New York City. He's 28 years old, single, and aspire to adopt a child from China. He has wanted to do this his whole life. One day he sells a mattress to a man named Al (John Goodman) who sends in his daughter Happy (Deschanel) to pick it up, she falls asleep on the mattress and from that moment she changes Brian's life.
This is obviously a quirky film, and the director deliberately tries to do things to make you think. Brian obviously wants to adopt this baby, but he has to wrestle some personal demons first. His father just turned 80, his brothers are in their late 40's. His parents had him far too late for him to develop a normal relationship with anyone of them. Happy also has her own set of issues. Her divorced parents were never really there. They only give her money instead of giving her their personal insight or opinions. Both of our main characters have essentially never been loved, yet their growing relationship and Brian's desire to adopt all play into this.
*spoiler alert*
I'm going to put this out there since this seems to be the main cause for most people's confusion with this film. Throughout the film Brian is attacked by a homeless man (played by Zack Galifianekis) this was meant to represent Brian's conflicts with himself, not that he was actually being beat down by a random man everywhere he went. We see the same sort of transition with Happy, towards the end of the film she breaks a pinata. That represented her finally getting the feeling of a family and shattering all those bad memories. The entire film is meant to be subtle. They wanted to keep everyone guessing. My take on the film being called "Gigantic" was that we are supposed to be seeing the big picture, which is often caused by the little things.
I liked the film overall, but I felt as if it was holding back a bit. Paul Dano has the rare talent of being able to have amazing chemistry with anyone he is on screen with and Zooey Deschanel is so interesting you can't take your eyes off of her. I wanted to see more between Brian and Happy, but instead we only got little glimpses of their relationship. I felt they could've gone a bit further with them, or even showed us some more affection between the two of them. The film did get a little carried away with all the undertones "what does this mean?" "could this be happening?" "what does this say to you?" But overall an interesting film with some very talented actors in Dano and Deschanel
Recommended: Yes 3/5 stars
Memorable Quote: "You don't understand, this has been going on for a long time" - Brian Weathersby (Paul Dano)
'Gigantic' follows Brian (Dano) he's a mattress salesmen in the suburbs of New York City. He's 28 years old, single, and aspire to adopt a child from China. He has wanted to do this his whole life. One day he sells a mattress to a man named Al (John Goodman) who sends in his daughter Happy (Deschanel) to pick it up, she falls asleep on the mattress and from that moment she changes Brian's life.
This is obviously a quirky film, and the director deliberately tries to do things to make you think. Brian obviously wants to adopt this baby, but he has to wrestle some personal demons first. His father just turned 80, his brothers are in their late 40's. His parents had him far too late for him to develop a normal relationship with anyone of them. Happy also has her own set of issues. Her divorced parents were never really there. They only give her money instead of giving her their personal insight or opinions. Both of our main characters have essentially never been loved, yet their growing relationship and Brian's desire to adopt all play into this.
*spoiler alert*
I'm going to put this out there since this seems to be the main cause for most people's confusion with this film. Throughout the film Brian is attacked by a homeless man (played by Zack Galifianekis) this was meant to represent Brian's conflicts with himself, not that he was actually being beat down by a random man everywhere he went. We see the same sort of transition with Happy, towards the end of the film she breaks a pinata. That represented her finally getting the feeling of a family and shattering all those bad memories. The entire film is meant to be subtle. They wanted to keep everyone guessing. My take on the film being called "Gigantic" was that we are supposed to be seeing the big picture, which is often caused by the little things.
I liked the film overall, but I felt as if it was holding back a bit. Paul Dano has the rare talent of being able to have amazing chemistry with anyone he is on screen with and Zooey Deschanel is so interesting you can't take your eyes off of her. I wanted to see more between Brian and Happy, but instead we only got little glimpses of their relationship. I felt they could've gone a bit further with them, or even showed us some more affection between the two of them. The film did get a little carried away with all the undertones "what does this mean?" "could this be happening?" "what does this say to you?" But overall an interesting film with some very talented actors in Dano and Deschanel
Recommended: Yes 3/5 stars
Memorable Quote: "You don't understand, this has been going on for a long time" - Brian Weathersby (Paul Dano)
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