Whenever my husband and I are in the video store, I manage to find a seemingly unknown indie gem with credible actors and a film festival insignia on the box. My husband will look at me doubtfully, not because he doesn’t like indie movies but because he figures, if there are well known actors in a movie that we haven’t heard of (and we’ve heard of most of them) then the movie will surely disappoint. My husband often gives into these requests despite his misgivings – and needless to say, we’ve sat through a lot of disappointing indie films!
The movie Gigantic is exactly this type of movie. It stars indie darlings Paul Dano (Little Miss Sunshine), Zooey Deschanel (500 Days of Summer) and John Goodman (The Big Lebowski), but even their collective awesomeness can’t sustain this mess of a film, co-written by two newcomers, Matt Aselton and Adam Nagata; and directed by Matt Aselton.
The movie opens with an amateur (I know, because if I were to write a screenplay, this is what I would do) screenwriting move: an attempt to subtlety illustrate the main premise in a symbolic opening scene. In this first scene Brian is watching his friend Larry, a researcher, conduct an experiment on a couple of rats, where he places the rats in an adverse situation (a fish tank full of water) to see if they will give up or attempt to escape. Larry explains that some rats consistently exhibit one behaviour over another and when given anti-depressants, the rats’ attempt to escape increases.
The human incarnation of these rats are represented by Brian (Dano), a dull, emotionless 28 year old, who works at a high end mattress shop and has been obsessed with adopting a Chinese baby since he was 8; his octogenarian father (Ed Asner), with whom he does hallucinogenic mushrooms; and his homeless stalker (Zach Galifianakis), who may or not be a figment of his imagination. Brian. despite being dull and emotionless, is the kind of person who doesn’t give up, as exemplified by his persistence in adopting a Chinese baby and by fighting back against the homeless stalker, who again, may or may not exist. So that leaves Happy (ironic!), a dazed flake who walks around in her underwear in front of strangers but fears public nudity, hasn’t held a real job, never had a boyfriend, and has started and quit 5 different degrees in 5 years. Happy lives with her affluent, loud-mouthed father (Goodman) with a back problem, which, like Galifianakis’s character, may or may not exist. Oh, and her mother doesn’t care about her. Oh, and she also might be pregnant with Brian’s baby. Happy, despite her name, is the kind of person that runs away when faced with adversity. Brian and Happy strike up a relationship, despite a considerable lack of chemistry.
If any of this seems confusing, that’s because it is. There are a number of horribly caricatured characters and too many story lines, all of which make the movie feel more like a collection of scenes mashed together rather than scenes with an intention to propel the story further. There are too many ideas, characters, and stories that dilute the main premise of the movie. I felt lost at points, as if my copy of the movie had scenes missing.
Most unsettling, there is an unnecessary use of quirk. A note to Matt Aselton: not all indie movies need to be whimsical and unusual! An interview with Matt Aselton indicated that he was going for a feel that was “off-centre”. I am all for quirk, but only as long as it fuels the story along. In this movie, the quirk feels forced, like it’s there for the sake of being “off-centre.” There are so many scenes in the movie that instead of being funny or interesting, come off as awkward and peculiar. If you are interested in charming quirky movies, I would suggest: You Me and Everyone we Know, Rushmore, Lars and the Real Girl and Stranger than Fiction. In these films, the quirk is essential to the story and not simply tacked on to fit into the Indie Movie Archetype.
There are a few redeeming qualities in the film. The cinematography was really interesting at some points; some of the shots were compositionally very beautiful, like photographs. Happy’s wardrobe was pretty amazing – I’d like to raid her closet! And the best part of all, in one of the last scenes of the movie, Happy beats the bejesus out of a piñata of Muammar Gaddafi!! A little heavy handed – finally Happy has some fight in her – but a great, fun scene that even NATO would applaud.
