Product Description

Mattress salesman, Brian Weathersby (PAUL DANO) gets swept up in a romance with the lovely but misguided Harriet Lolly (ZOOEY DESCHANEL) when she comes in to his store one day and falls asleep on one of the beds. To win her over, he must compete with her bear of a father, Al Lolly, (JOHN GOODMAN) an art-collecting loudmouth with a bad back and deep pockets. GIGANTIC is a funny, surreal love story about the anxiety that comes when two people with crazy families collide unexpectedly and fall for each other.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #22851 in DVD
• Brand: UNI DIST CORP (MUSIC)
• Released on: 2009-08-11
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.77:1
• Formats: Color, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 98 minutes

Customer Reviews

Curve Balls
"Gigantic" offers a mix of experiences. From the opening credit where the title is in a small font, one knows that this is a film that throws curve balls. One never quite knows what to expect. Paul Dano who was so good in "Little Miss Sunshine" and "There Will Be Blood" also produced. He turns in a subtle performance as Brian Weathersby who sells mattresses and works to secure his life-long dream of becoming an adoptive parent to a Chinese child. A complication arises as he meets Harriet "Happy" Lolly played by Zooey Deschanel. Shopping for a mattress, she falls asleep on the bed. From there a friendship and unusual romance develops. Ed Asner has a nice cameo as Brian's father. Jane Alexander turns in an excellent cameo performance as Brian's mother. John Goodman is blustery and eccentric as Harriet's father. The performances are all first rate. Enjoy!

Obscure & totally dysfunctional - loved it.
What a great little film. An irrational "love" story filled with the single most dysfunctional group of dorks I have ever enjoyed watching. Two obscure performances from Ed Asner and the mute Zach Galifianakis underscore the boldest roles for Zooey and Paul Dano I have seen outside of their mainstream stuff.

It is difficult to explain as I found it hard to classify this a comedy, but the laugh out loud moments of excellent writing were numerous and placed just right. The story follows two young lovers as they traverse their "jobs", un-describable families, and each of their respective dysfunctions. Along the way we are subjected to Galifianakis' homeless stalker, Ed Asner's bizarre dad insight, and a Japanese spa scene that if described, would not allow this review to get posted (do not remember seeing anything like that on film before).

The filming is unique, the 5.1 is decent and picture quality is good. The special features are sparse but contain one of the most relevant deleted/alternate scenes I have watched in some time. Had they edited that 30 second clip into the film (the alternate scene clip), it would have changed the entire premise. The stills gallery is forgettable and a trailer is included. Would have preferred to see more about the brains behind this and maybe a featurette, but the film is an interesting piece on its own. It says R for language, sexual content and violence, but nudity should be in there also for the Zooey/pool scene, albeit from a distance.

A Charming, Low-Key Film
Gigantic is another independent romantic-comedy starring Zooey Deschanel. Like other films of this sort that she's starred in, it's not your typical, everything-turns-out-fine, big box-office take romantic-comedy. Instead, it's a subtle, quirky film with whimsical characters that is hardly the first of it's kind, but is still a unique little movie.

Paul Dano (also the executive producer) is a mopey, 28-year-old mattress salesmen named Brian who's in the process of adopting a Chinese baby. One day, Al Lolly (John Goodman), a successful, loud-mouthed man with back problems comes in and buys a mattress. His daughter Happy (Deschanel) comes in to take care of the financial aspects and ends up falling asleep on one of the bed's.

Ed Asner co-stars as Brian's elderly father, while Zach Galifianakis (a recent scene-stealer in The Hangover) plays a mysterious, mute homeless man.

What is instantly striking is the unique characters and the subtle things that make them unique. One character introduces himself with "'sup dude? Not much," everytime he enters a room. There's the bizarre, mute homeless man of course. And how many beautiful, eccentric girls randomly fall asleep in a mattress warehouse? So, yes the character's are unique...But they don't come off as being written in such a way. My impression of the character's was not one of a writer saying "look at my unique characters!" They seem normal, real, just not without their eccentricities.

The acting really brings that quality out. Dano has played every sort of character and his quiet, disconnected Brian is another winning performance. Goodman has played a loud-mouthed, sympathetic character before and few actors are better at it. Finally, although not expanding her acting range much, Deschanel is a charmer...She once again plays a character that's reserved and complicated, but you can see how someone could instantly fall for her.

Gigantic did not blow me away, but it's got many admirable qualities. I enjoyed it's subtle, deadpan humor. It doesn't seem to reach for laughs, but will graciously accept them if the timing is right. Co-writer/director Matt Aselton marks his directorial debut here and he doesn't seem to have totally hit his creative stride yet. There are scenes in Gigantic that feel out-of-place, like Aselton didn't focus on a completely linear story arc. Also, I'm not sure about the necessity of the Galifianakis character.

Gigantic is an ironic title for a film of this scope. It's a simple film about complicated people that simplifies their "gigantic" complications in their otherwise typical, fruitless lives. It's low-key and light-on-it's-feet and although I enjoyed it, I couldn't help but think that it had more potential than it fulfilled. It's not perfect, but a strong debut by a filmmaker who could make something very special in the future.

GRADE: B-