Gigantic
(2008/Vivendi DVD)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: C- Film: C
Paul Dano
is a good actor looking for another good movie and even when he is good, the
film often is not. As Brian Weathersby,
the protagonist and mattress salesman in Writer/Director Matt Aselton’s Gigantic (2008), he is the target of
violence, ridicule and near clinical depression. He thinks adopting an infant from China will
make him happier, then he meets Harriet Lolly (aka Happy, played by Zooey
Deschanel) and comes into his life opening up new possibilities.
However,
they each have their parents to contend with and her father (John Goodman) is
as eccentric as his parents (Jane Alexander and Edward Asner) are showing why
the potential couple would be so interested in being with each other. Yet, there are other misgivings as their tale
veers into a direction of uncharted emotional waters for both.
Unfortunately,
despite a good cast and attempt to do the “ordinary-as-wacky” thing, it is
sadly more cliché than adding up to anything honest or that we have not seen
before. I like the leads and the cast is
very good too, but Deschanel’s character is underdeveloped and her performance
cannot make up for that. The result is a
good idea failing from the inexperience of the makers and a disappointment for
a film I had higher hopes for.
The
anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image is supposedly shot in 35mm film, but you
would not know that from how soft this is throughout, though a digitally
over-manipulated Super 35mm edit might be why.
The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is better than the Dolby 2.0 Stereo, but this
is dialogue (and mumble) based so don’t expect much form the sound. Extras are few and include a trailer, stills,
alternate scene and deleted scenes that are weak.
- Nicholas Sheffo
