Gigantic Review

There are no spoilers in this review.

PLOT: A mattress salesman finds his plan to adopt a Chinese baby augmented by the arrival of a young woman who comes into his workplace, falls asleep on one of the beds, and has an affect on his life.


THE GOOD: Dialogue. The best thing about Gigantic is the dialogue. Matt Aselton and Adam Nagata really get down the nature of conversations. I love the natural speaking and interactions. It's something that a lot of big movies seem to be missing, so I really appreciate it.


Edward Asner and John Goodman. For me, Ed Asner and John Goodman carried this lemon of a movie along. Their combined experience really helped the mediocre acting in the film. John Goodman was especially memorable as the rich and obese father of Zooey Deschanel's character.

Cinematography. I really liked the still shots in this film. A lot of shots of the city and nature. They would have also made very good photographs.


THE BAD: Story. The plot may sound interesting, but it really doesn't go anywhere. And when it finally does, you're taken away and shown odd sidetracks. The characters are interesting, but you don't learn very much about them. The movie is too cluttered.

Emotion. There is no relationship between Brian and Happy in this film. You don't ever believe that they could love each other. There is no emotion from either of the main characters. Incredibly disappointing and probably the main reason I was not sold on this movie.


Comedy. The film falls under the independent comedy genre, but it's not funny. There are very few laughs in the film. As I mentioned before, there are a few random scenes thrown in for humor, but it's so tasteless and unrefined.


THE END: I did not care for Gigantic, but I'm eager to see what Matt Aselton can do in the future. Perhaps teaming up with an experienced writer on getting a good story down would be good for him. I don't recommend seeing this until it plays on TV for free, if it ever does. Not all indie films can be good.


DISCUSS: What did you think of Gigantic? What was your favorite indie film of 2009?