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. I suspect he was trying too hard to be terrific and not hard enough to get organized.
His hero, Brian Weathersby (the willfully bland Paul Dano), is a young and feckless mattress salesman. He was a late son in a tribe of unconventional brothers. When they all get together with Dad (Ed Asner) in the family’s cottage in the woods, Dad bonds with him by consuming hallucinogenic mushrooms. How Brian would know he was hallucinating is a good question, because much of his life unfolds on the border of reality.
The Swiss mattress showroom occupies a vast upper floor of a warehouse. Into this space one day marches Al Lolly (John Goodman), a big man with a painful back problem. Brian shows him the high-end $14,000 mattress, which uses real horsehair, which is a big deal in the mattress universe. The mattress also inspires an inspection by Al’s daughter, Harriet (Zooey Deschanel), a beautiful girl with startling blue-green eyes. Although you might expect to find her on magazine covers, she is as inward as Brian; they speak in minimalist murmurs.
Ever since he was a little boy, Brian has been obsessed with the idea of adopting a Chinese baby. He doesn’t understand why. Harriet might upset that dream. She invites him to her home, and he enters into a strange world ruled by Al, a rich, opinionated eccentric, who is driven everywhere flat on his back in the rear of a Volvo station wagon.
Brian’s life is complicated by a berserk madman who ambushes him with assaults. This man seems imaginary, until Brian receives facial wounds that don’t go away.
To summarize: A loser mattress salesman with a peculiar father meets a beautiful lost girl with an eccentric millionaire father, is attacked by a loony while trying to evade love and adopt a Chinese baby. Does this sound like a screenplay, or a contest entry? In the U.K., it would be described as too clever by half, and “clever” is not a compliment over there.
“Gigantic” is an example of a certain kind of “Sundance movie” made after the ship has sailed. The pendulum is swinging back toward the more classical forms of filmmaking. It’s not enough to add, “oh — and this homeless guy keeps attacking him.” Wackiness for its own sake is not a substitute for humor or much of anything else.
And yet some things are really good: the conversation between Brian and Harriet in the doctor’s waiting room. The way the parents take to the Chinese baby. The way that John Goodman makes Al Lolly a character and not a caricature. The way that Harriet falls asleep on the $14,000 mattress, and what they say after she wakes up. Matt Aselton’s next film might be a marvel.
“Gigantic”
R for language, some sexual content and violence. 1 hour, 38 minutes. Written and directed by Matt Aselton; starring Paul Dano, Zooey Deschanel, Edward Asner, Jane Alexander, John Goodman, Ian Roberts and Robert Stanton. Opens today at Starz FilmCenter.
