GIGANTIC
Directed by Matt Aselton
Produced by Mindy Goldberg & Christine Vachon
Written by Aselton & Adam Nagata
Released by First Independent Pictures
USA. 99 min. Rated R
With Paul Dano, Zooey Deschanel, Ed Asner, Jane Alexander & John Goodman 
 

Brian (Paul Dano) wants to adopt a Chinese baby. There’s no explanation for why he’s so inclined towards parenthood as a single twentysomething, why he wants a Chinese baby in particular, or why he’s been obsessed with this goal since adolescence. There’s also the homeless man that Brian imagines assaulting him. This is also left unexplained in a world where, as Brian’s mother describes it, “Nothing is normal.”

There’s also something perplexing about Harriet (Zooey Deschanel), daughter of the tycoon and customer who bought the most expensive bed in Brian’s fancy New York mattress store. She’s attractive, comfortable with herself and her wealth, sexually forward, but still somehow socially awkward in that injurious way all Deschanel’s characters share, from Kat in Weeds to Alma in The Happening—roles where the character’s approach to life damages her relationships. Their romance guides the story, but Aselton is more of a portrait artist than a narrative storyteller, and the film feels more like character sketches come to life than an engaging, satisfying story.

Dano and Deschanel are perfect, if obvious, choices to multiply the quirkiness factor Aselton underscores, highlights, and circles here. Known for his ill at ease roles in Little Miss Sunshine and There Will Be Blood, Dano’s idiosyncratic characters are as alienating as they are alienated. The best way I can think to describe Dano’s Brian is that he’s like the most charming outcome of a childhood spent raised by forest animals. Surprisingly skillful with physical comedy, Deschanel’s comic timing feels out of step with Gigantic’s other, more cerebral actors, making Harriet even more otherworldly. Brian and Harriet are interesting and played well, but too much of the film is spent detailing their alien personalities. Without storylines to engage the characters with each other and the audience, watching the film is like staring at Beta fish swim about in an aquarium.

What works here are Aselton’s wonderful vignettes. On Brian’s father’s birthday, his dad, played hilariously by Ed Asner, makes a magic mushroom tea for his sons, and seeing Asner and Dano trip together through a forest is a trip. John Goodman’s buffoon tycoon is his best role since Monsters, Inc. And for a total of two short scenes, Jane Alexander plays Brian’s mother. Her minute-long conversation with Harriet on a fire escape is the most emotionally resonant sequence in the entire film. Zachary Jones
April 3, 2009