Gigantic (2008)

A mattress salesman finds his plan to adopt a Chinese baby augmented by the arrival of a young woman, who comes into his workplace, falls asleep on one of the beds, and starts to affect his life upon waking up.

Director:

Matt Aselton

Writers:

Adam Nagata, Matt Aselton

Stars:

Paul Dano, Zooey Deschanel, John Goodman

1 win.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Paul Dano	...	Brian Weathersby
Zooey Deschanel	...	Happy Lolly
John Goodman	...	Al Lolly
Edward Asner	...	Kirby Weathersby (as Ed Asner)
Jane Alexander	...	Barbara Weathersby
Ian Roberts	...	John Weathersby
Robert Stanton	...	James Weathersby
Clarke Peters	...	Roger Stovall
Daniel Stewart Sherman	...	Kevin Blue
Mary Page Keller	...	Marguerite Lolly
Zach Galifianakis	...	Homeless Man
Brian Avers	...	Larry Arbogast
Leven Rambin	...	Missy Thaxton
Susan Misner	...	Melanie Lolly
Matt Walton	...	Conner Williams

Storyline

Do we ever get what we want? Brian sells mattresses in a warehouse store. His father and older brothers have material success; he wants a child. He's applied to adopt a baby from China. A man who appears homeless seems to be stalking Brian with violent intent. He meets Happy, the daughter of a rich, quirky customer. She doesn't stick to anything, but she and Brian hit it off, except for her vomiting when she learns about his adoption idea. He wants her to meet his family, and there's a call about the adoption. What will Happy do?

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Plot Keywords:

adoption | baby | store | stalking | bed | 

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Taglines:

When it comes to family and relationships, there are no small surprises

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language, some sexual content and violence

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English French

Release Date:

19 June 2009 (UK)

Also Known As:

Falrengető

Filming Locations:

Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$10,294 (USA) (3 April 2009)

Gross:

$102,079 (USA) (26 June 2009)

Company Credits

Production Co:

First Independent Pictures, Epoch Films, Killer Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

98 min 98 min (Buenos Aires Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente)

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Quotes

Brian: [first lines - watching rats swimming] Okay, he stopped.
Larry Arbogast: Which one?
Brian: S-seven.
Larry Arbogast: Start the stopwatch.
Brian: Is he okay?
Larry Arbogast: Yeah, he's fine... Stop.
Brian: What does that mean?
Larry Arbogast: Nothing. Well, the logic is that when forced into an aversive situation, i.e., being dumped into a pool, the rat will oscillate between attempts to escape and resigning to its fate.
Brian: Oh, and this guy gave up.
Larry Arbogast: Today he did.
[...]

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Connections

Featured in The Rotten Tomatoes Show: Observe & Report/Gigantic/Hannah Montana: The Movie (2009)

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Soundtracks

"I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight"
Written by Richard Thompson & Linda Thompson
Performed by Richard Thompson & Linda Thompson
Courtesy of Island Records Limited
Under license from Universal Music Enterprises

User Reviews

A sagging mattress held up by the support cast

"Gigantic's" main protagonist is twenty-eight year old Brian - a morose, mumbling, monosyllabic mattress salesman. Some jaded film-goers might feel they've witnessed Paul Dano portraying this character's clone on several previous occasions, and met Brian's charisma-free loner cousins overplaying their sensitivity and quirkiness in far too many Indie projects. In 'Gigantic' Brian possesses the stubborn ambition to adopt a Chinese baby - a plot contrivance which appears principally designed to conceal his stupefying dullness. Despite being single, earning little money and suffering from violent hallucinations, he considers himself good parent material - and some irresponsible adoption agency (that could only exist in an Indie universe) seems to agree.

The story begins when Al Lolly, an overweight businessman with chronic back problems, visits the gloomy mattress warehouse where Brian is employed. Big Al purchases a top-of-the-line item and later sends his beautiful daughter to settle the bill. When she arrives on the scene, it's soon apparent that Happy Lolly equals Brian in the quirky troubled department. She asks him to help transport her father to a chiropractic appointment, and while the oddball soul-mates wait for Al to conclude his treatment, Happy casually inquires whether Brian would be interested to have sex with her. He doggedly obliges in the underground car park - and so it comes to pass that the loony lovers embark on their lukewarm love affair. If truth be told, the romance doesn't amount to much - almost immediately Happy expresses her neuroses with lame attempts to escape the relationship, while Brian continues on his doleful way obsessing about Chinese babies. Like it or leave it - that's how love is in Indie-World.

'Gigantic's' script is a strangely schizophrenic beast - the main narrative arc is the lovers' moth-eaten romance, but the rest of the dialog contains some offbeat black humor, providing John Goodman, Ed Asner, Jane Alexander, Clarke Peters and Zooey Deschanel with the raw material to create some authentically original characters. Somehow, mysteriously, their combined talents just manage to keep 'Gigantic' afloat while Dano impersonates a sack of potatoes in the central role.