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Gigantic

EMAILPRINTFirst Independent Pictures

Gigantic reviews
38
4.8 User Score:

Generally unfavorable reviews

Based on 13 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 6 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info

Genre(s): Comedy  |  Romance

Written by: Matt Aselton

Directed by: Matt Aselton

Release Date:
Theatrical: April 3, 2009
DVD: August 11, 2009

Running Time: 98 minutes, Color

Origin: USA

Summary

RATING: R for language, some sexual content and violence

Starring Paul Dano, Zooey Deschanel, Edward Asner, Jane Alexander, John Goodman, Ian Roberts, and Robert Stanton

Brian Weathersby is a 28 year-old salesman at a high-end Swedish mattress company. The afterthought child to elderly parents, and the youngest son in a trio of successful 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. 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. (First Independent Pictures)

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

88

New York Post Kyle Smith

The slacker comedy-drama-romance-whatever Gigantic will fulfill all your alterna-movie weirdness requirements.

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80

Los Angeles Times Gary Goldstein

First-time feature director Matt Aselton, who co-wrote the darkly funny, well-observed script with Adam Nagata, has crafted a disarming tale that's one of the better independent films in recent memory.

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63

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

On the basis of Gigantic, Matt Aselton can make a fine and original film. This isn't quite it, but it has moments so good, all you wish for is a second draft.

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63

ReelViews James Berardinelli

An offbeat romantic comedy that almost - but not quite - works. The characters and situations are a little too quirky for their own good.

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50

Boston Globe Ty Burr

Gigantic plays like a Sundance movie with half the nouns removed; fetchingly cryptic for a while, it's ultimately just obscure.

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50

The New York Times Stephen Holden

With its off-center dialogue and upscale industrial settings, Gigantic strains to be original. But beneath its indie affectations it is really another contemplation of generational misunderstanding.

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50

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

This is loads of fun in the early stretch, as the characters are being introduced, but the story never really goes anywhere.

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40

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

It's just not all that interesting to watch two pretty young things go through the muddled rituals of the pas de duh when I can, you know, do it just as poorly myself.

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30

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

We can be grateful to a stellar cast and some discipline on the part of Matt Aselton, a commercials director making his feature debut, that Gigantic doesn't go completely overboard. Nevertheless, the film will appeal mostly to festivals and adventurous audiences.

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25

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

Any resemblance the film bears to real people and real situations is purely coincidental.

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20

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

Dano is a talented actor who needs to aim higher, and it should go without saying that Deschanel can do - and should know - better.

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10

Village Voice Nick Pinkerton

I don't remember ever wanting to just haul out and punch a movie before Gigantic.

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0

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

Inert, incompetent and emotionally fraudulent.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 4.8 (out of 10) based on 6 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Jay H gave it a4:
A bland comedy, even with a terrific cast. I just found it too slow moving and boring. It's well enough produced but too often nothing happens in the film to hold the viewers interest.

E L gave it a3:
Despite a few very funny moments in this film especially from old pros John Goodman, Ed Asner and Jane Alexander, Gigantic came off very uneven and lacked focus toward its purpose. Finally what's up with those inexpicable scenes of the guy beating up Dano constantly???

R K gave it a7:
Yes the director probably tries a little to hard in making the characters "quirky" and yes there are a few plot holes and scenes that don't mesh with the overall movie but all in all I really enjoyed this film and laughed many many times and to me that's all that really matters. Its not a work of art but at the end I had a good time and laughed out loud many times.

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