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Released 19th June 2009
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One word can be used to adequately describe debut writer/director Matt Aselton’s quirky new indie rom-com: random. In fact, this film is gigantic on randomness, as a bizarre collection of incidents are experienced by two members of two highly dysfunctional families on a collision course to be united in the most bizarre of ways - through an adopted Chinese baby girl (the mind boggles…).
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Although, at times, the darkly funny and highly observant script is a credit to Aselton, it’s only through the wonderfully zany and totally sincere performances from ‘indie darlings’ Paul Dano (of Little Miss Sunshine fame) and kooky Zooey Deschanel (co-stars opposite Jim Carrey in Yes Man) that events become even remotely interesting. Add a marvellously entertaining and off-the-wall appearance from cuddly John Goodman as the brash and arrogant, but soft-centred businessman father of Deschanel’s Harriet ‘Happy’ Lolly, and you are sure to have a winner, aren’t you?
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The trouble with all such indie comedies trying too hard to be intellectually superior and rather twee is they often trip up on their own smugness and affected (although well-meaning) sentimentality. That which is too random in nature often misses the point of capturing the audience’s imagination, and Gigantic, sadly, leans in this direction. In fact, even lovers of surreal humour might find this rom-com a little too disjointed for their taste, even though they will revel in the stellar cast. As ever, Zooey as Happy is an energetic ray of light to watch, regardless of the subject matter she finds herself in, which nicely contrasts with rising star Dano’s sensitive and slightly introverted nature. Just why his character, Brian Weathersby, wants to adopt a Chinese baby is never fully explained, except that we are expected to merely entertain the idea as an element of the film’s eccentricity.
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As offbeat humour goes, there is also a collection of (left unexplained) oddball characters, like Brian’s co-workers at the mattress warehouse business - where he meets and lets Happy sleep - and a crazed homeless guy, played by The Hangover star Zach Galifianakis, who is intent of maiming or even killing Brian as he walks to and from work. Why? We just don’t know, but the homeless guy’s antics are a metaphor for the whole far-out affair.
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Throw reason to the wind, and you might get a lot out of this film, especially if you are a fan of any of the above actors. It engages because you spend a good proportion of your time trying to decipher the link that pieces the bits together. And it isn’t the baby. Perhaps that’s it; youth’s inability to decipher exactly what it wants, but in the meantime floats into one random situation after another, until such purpose strikes?
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By Lisa Keddie
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Synopsis
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Brian Weathersby is a 28 year-old salesman at a high-end Swedish mattress company. The afterthought child to elderly parents, the youngest son with two successful older brothers, a shady oil man, a surgeon, Brian is searching for his place in the world. Unfulfilled by his work he spends a good portion of his day pursuing his goal of someday adopting a baby from China. He gets swept up in a romance with the lovely but misguided Harriet Lolly 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, an art-collecting loudmouth with a bad back and deep pockets. A depressed mattress salesman falls for a young woman he meets in his store.
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Film Fact
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Official site: TBC
UK Release Date: 19th June 2009
Director: Matt Aselton
Writer: Matt Aselton
Cast: Paul Dano (’Brian Weathersby’), Zooey Deschanel (’Harriet Lolly’), Edward Asner (’Mr. Weathersby’), Jane Alexander (’Mrs. Weathersby’), John Goodman (’Al Lolly’), Sean Dugan (’Gary Wynkoop’), Brian Avers (’Larry Arbogast’), Louis Ozawa Changchien (’Matsubara’), Zach Galifianakis (’Homeless Guy’), Frank Harts (’Kenyatta Folds’)
Distributor: The Works
Certificate: 15
Run-time: 98 mins
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Video on Real.com
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Trailer:
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