Gigantic (2008)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:72
Fresh:27
Rotten:45
Average Rating:4.7/10
Consensus: This overly quirky, incessantly whimsical indie is too self-conscious for its own good.
Theatrical Release:19-06-2009
Synopsis: GIGANTIC’s Brian Weathersby (Paul Dano) isn’t your average 28-year-old man. He sleepily works as a mattress salesman while he tries to fulfill his lifelong dream of adopting a Chinese baby. But... [More]
Starring: Paul Dano, Zooey Deschanel, John Goodman, Ed Asner
Director: Matt Aselton
Reviews for Gigantic
| Tomatometer | Critic | Review | Category |
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 1/5 |
This determinedly nonsensical American indie feels like it was assembled in an off-world quirk factory. Full Review |
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 3/5 |
Not quite this year’s hip little indie romantic comedy that could, as it clearly aspires to be, but smart-ish and drily funny while overly littered with twitches and tweaks. Full Review |
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3/5 |
‘Gigantic’ is a film that succeeds by wearing the viewer down, as an infuriatingly coy, self-conscious first act gives way to a sweet and affecting climax. Full Review |
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2/5 |
The kind of mumbling, lank-haired, achingly self-conscious indie rom-com that gives mumbling, lank-haired, achingly self-conscious indie rom-coms a bad name. Full Review |
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2/5 |
It’s slyly misogynistic, dramatically inert, and wastes an intriguing boorish cameo from John Goodman. Full Review |
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1/5 |
This film is entirely empty: empty of substance, devoid of plausible characters, and without anything like a satisfying style. Full Review |
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4/5 |
Here the characters drive everything – they’re quirky without being annoying, funny without being clownish and odd but realistic. As funny and interesting as it is, however, the film raises more question than it answers. Full Review |
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4/5 |
It's very hard not to get sucked in to the charm of this movie. Dano and Deschanel play their parts to perfection, exuding just the right amount of awkwardness and insecurity to bring the story to life. Full Review |
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1/5 |
Everything that happens slots neatly into the art house template - wacky leads, wackier supporting players, coy alt-rock soundtrack - but director Matt Aselton doesn't know when to stop. Full Review |
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3/5 |
Taking his cue from his leading man’s minimalist, self-effacing performance, director and co-writer Matt Aselton has fashioned a wry homage to eccentricity. Full Review |
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3/5 |
Yet there’s an echo of Hal Ashby, or even Hal Hartley, in the subversion of easy truisms about relationships, and its primary note - mild anxiety - may make it a cult favourite. Full Review |
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1/5 |
By the end, I was thoroughly alienated by the movie's twee, self-satisfied empty-headedness and rooting for the homeless man to do his worst. Full Review |
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2/5 |
An indie comedy that's been kooked to a crisp. Wearing its quirkiness on its sleeve, the whole thing's just too self-consciously strange to engage. Full Review |
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Gigantic tries so hard to be cute and quirky it forgets it should also try to be interesting. Full Review |
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2/5 |
Don't hope for anything profound among the smug coolness. Full Review |
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The film obviously got a grant from Cool Aid, the endowment fund targeted at US filmmakers with nothing to say but a million airheaded ways to say it. Full Review |
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2/5 |
It's kooky, it's quirky, it's dippy, it's trippy, it's loopy, it's screwy – it's indie, and boy, it's annoying. Full Review |
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A likable cast brings some charm and humour to Gigantic but it remains an overly mannered, self-conscious effort. Full Review |
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3/5 |
Likeable indie romance, thanks to strong performances and some nice ideas, though it's often a little too quirky for its own good and is almost derailed by a spectacularly misguided subplot. Full Review |
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4/5 |
This gentle romance is so wilfully quirky that it will drive some audiences a bit crazy. But if you can connect to the film's warmth and the humanity of its characters, it really gets under the skin. Full Review |
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