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Gigantic (film)
Encyclopedia
Gigantic is a 2008 independent comedy film
directed by Matt Aselton and starring Paul Dano
, Zooey Deschanel
, John Goodman
, Edward Asner and Jane Alexander
. The script, written by Aselton and his college friend Adam Nagata, tells of Brian (Dano), a mattress salesman who wishes to adopt a baby from China
, but finds himself sharing his passion, with the quirky, wealthy Harriet (Deschanel) when they meet in his store. The story was based on Aselton's childhood wish for his parents to adopt a Chinese
baby. The film was shot in New York
and Connecticut
. It had its world premiere at 2008's Toronto International Film Festival
and was released in the United States
on April 3, 2009.
The script languished for several years before the film went into production, when producer Mindy Goldberg brought the script to Christine Vachon
of Killer Films
. Aselton said the most challenging part of making the film was casting the two lead roles of Brian and Harriet. Paul Dano liked the script and was one of the first actors to sign on, which attracted others to join the cast. Aselton said that Dano was one of the first to audition for the role and the first to understand the story; Deschanel was the second actor to understand, and so both were cast. To prepare for his role, Dano talked to salesmen at Sleepy's, a mattress store, and bought Chinese language
tapes to learn some of the language as his character did. Filming began on March 3, 2008 and lasted for 23 days. As a director of commercials, Aselton brought many of his former crew members with him to work on Gigantic. Most of production took place in Brooklyn
and Manhattan
but several scenes were filmed in Stamford, Connecticut
and Los Angeles
. Filming locations included Brooklyn Heights
' Cadman Plaza West and Cobble Hill
's Quercy
restaurant. Scenes in the mattress store were filmed inside an abandoned warehouse, which cinematographer Peter Donahue described as "a big space with perfect texture on the walls and windows in the right places for motivated, practical light". Though the producers wanted to use 16 mm film
because of the tight budget, Aselton and Donahue chose to use Super 35 format, mainly using medium-long lenses
.
on September 9, 2008. Following its screening at American Film Market
, First Independent Pictures
bought the film's North American distribution rights. The film was pre-screened at Vassar College in the fall of 2008. It was screened at the Cornell University
Cinema on February 14, 2009 and in March at the Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema
and the AFI Dallas International Film Festival, where it won the Target Filmmaker Award for Best Narrative Feature. It was given a limited theatrical release
on April 3, 2009, coinciding with its showing at the Gen Art Film Festival
.
critics give it 36%, with 27 of 75 fresh reviews (five of which were from one of its top critics). Slant Magazine
called the film a "meager sum of quirky details" and gave it (½ out of four stars), though it complimented Dano's "fine performance." Stephen Holden
called it a "serious comedy about the children of privilege...a cautiously surreal, absurdist movie" with a protagonist (played by Dano) who's a "close spiritual relative of the polite young men who drift through mumblecore
films"; the review concludes:
The Village Voice
called it "another flimsy indie comedy for the heap" with a "screenplay's per-page quota of 'unexpected' tweaks [that leave] little room for much else."
Gigantic earned $102,704 in gross revenue in its limited thirteen-week, eleven-theater release, with its one-theater opening weekend collecting $10,294 of that total. Worldwide, the film grossed $165,888.
Comedy film
Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...
directed by Matt Aselton and starring Paul Dano
Paul Dano
Paul Franklin Dano is an American actor and producer. He has appeared in films such as L.I.E. , The Girl Next Door , Little Miss Sunshine , There Will Be Blood , and Where the Wild Things Are .-Early life:Dano was born in New York City, the son of Gladys and Paul Dano...
, Zooey Deschanel
Zooey Deschanel
Zooey Claire Deschanel is an American actress, musician, and singer-songwriter. In 1999, Deschanel made her film debut in Mumford, followed by her breakout role as young protagonist William Miller's troubled older sister Anita in Cameron Crowe's 2000 semi-autobiographical film Almost Famous...
, John Goodman
John Goodman
John Stephen Goodman is an American film, television, and stage actor. He is best known for his role as Dan Conner on the television series Roseanne for which he won a Best Actor Golden Globe Award in 1993, and for appearances in the films of the Coen brothers, with prominent roles in Raising...
, Edward Asner and Jane Alexander
Jane Alexander
Jane Alexander is an American actress, author, and former director of the National Endowment for the Arts. Although perhaps best known for playing the female lead in The Great White Hope on both stage and screen, Alexander has played a wide array of roles in both theater and film and has committed...
. The script, written by Aselton and his college friend Adam Nagata, tells of Brian (Dano), a mattress salesman who wishes to adopt a baby from China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, but finds himself sharing his passion, with the quirky, wealthy Harriet (Deschanel) when they meet in his store. The story was based on Aselton's childhood wish for his parents to adopt a Chinese
Chinese people
The term Chinese people may refer to any of the following:*People with Han Chinese ethnicity ....
baby. The film was shot in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
and Connecticut
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
. It had its world premiere at 2008's Toronto International Film Festival
Toronto International Film Festival
The Toronto International Film Festival is a publicly-attended film festival held each September in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. In 2010, 339 films from 59 countries were screened at 32 screens in downtown Toronto venues...
and was released in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
on April 3, 2009.
Premise
Young mattress salesman Brian decides to adopt a baby from China. Brian's life becomes more complicated and contemplative when he forms a relationship with quirky, wealthy Harriet, whom he meets at his mattress store.Cast
- Paul DanoPaul DanoPaul Franklin Dano is an American actor and producer. He has appeared in films such as L.I.E. , The Girl Next Door , Little Miss Sunshine , There Will Be Blood , and Where the Wild Things Are .-Early life:Dano was born in New York City, the son of Gladys and Paul Dano...
as Brian Weathersby - Zooey DeschanelZooey DeschanelZooey Claire Deschanel is an American actress, musician, and singer-songwriter. In 1999, Deschanel made her film debut in Mumford, followed by her breakout role as young protagonist William Miller's troubled older sister Anita in Cameron Crowe's 2000 semi-autobiographical film Almost Famous...
as Harriet "Happy" Lolly - John GoodmanJohn GoodmanJohn Stephen Goodman is an American film, television, and stage actor. He is best known for his role as Dan Conner on the television series Roseanne for which he won a Best Actor Golden Globe Award in 1993, and for appearances in the films of the Coen brothers, with prominent roles in Raising...
as Al Lolly - Edward Asner as Mr. Weathersby
- Jane AlexanderJane AlexanderJane Alexander is an American actress, author, and former director of the National Endowment for the Arts. Although perhaps best known for playing the female lead in The Great White Hope on both stage and screen, Alexander has played a wide array of roles in both theater and film and has committed...
as Mrs. Weathersby - Zach GalifianakisZach GalifianakisZachary Knight "Zach" Galifianakis is an American stand-up comedian and actor known for his numerous film and television appearances including his own Comedy Central Presents special...
as Homeless Guy - Clarke PetersClarke PetersClarke Peters is an American actor, singer, writer and director best known for his role as Detective Lester Freamon on the HBO drama The Wire.-Early life:...
as Roger Stovall
Production
Aselton said that, as the youngest child in his family, he wanted his parents to adopt a Chinese baby so that he could have a younger sibling; his younger brother did in fact adopt a baby later. He and co-writer Adam Nagata were fascinated by the idea and built the story around Brian's wanting to adopt a baby. Aselton and Nagata, college friends who both come from literary backgrounds, aimed to write the film as novelistic and surrealist rather than expository. They wanted to show "those little things that are often found in literature but rarely in film", such as Brian and his father's age difference and how it affects their relationship, and Harriet's walking around in her underpants and how it affects her and Brian's relationship. Aselton chose the title Gigantic because "There's an innocence about the [word]" due to its use by young children to describe something fantastic. He felt that the title was "a juxtaposition against Brian's life changing decision to adopt a baby".The script languished for several years before the film went into production, when producer Mindy Goldberg brought the script to Christine Vachon
Christine Vachon
Christine Vachon is an American film producer active in the American independent film sector and daughter of noted photographer John Vachon....
of Killer Films
Killer Films
Killer Films is a New York City-based independent film production company founded by American movie producers Christine Vachon and Pamela Koffler in 1995...
. Aselton said the most challenging part of making the film was casting the two lead roles of Brian and Harriet. Paul Dano liked the script and was one of the first actors to sign on, which attracted others to join the cast. Aselton said that Dano was one of the first to audition for the role and the first to understand the story; Deschanel was the second actor to understand, and so both were cast. To prepare for his role, Dano talked to salesmen at Sleepy's, a mattress store, and bought Chinese language
Chinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
tapes to learn some of the language as his character did. Filming began on March 3, 2008 and lasted for 23 days. As a director of commercials, Aselton brought many of his former crew members with him to work on Gigantic. Most of production took place in Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
and Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
but several scenes were filmed in Stamford, Connecticut
Stamford, Connecticut
Stamford is a city in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. According to the 2010 census, the population of the city is 122,643, making it the fourth largest city in the state and the eighth largest city in New England...
and Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
. Filming locations included Brooklyn Heights
Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn
Brooklyn Heights is a culturally diverse neighborhood within the New York City borough of Brooklyn. Originally referred to as 'Brooklyn Village', it has been a prominent area of Brooklyn since 1834. As of 2000, Brooklyn Heights sustained a population of 22,594 people. The neighborhood is part of...
' Cadman Plaza West and Cobble Hill
Cobble Hill, Brooklyn
Cobble Hill is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, USA. Bordered by Atlantic Avenue on the north, Hicks Street to the west, Smith Street on the east and Degraw Street to the south, Cobble Hill sits adjacent to Boerum Hill and Brooklyn Heights with Carroll Gardens to the south...
's Quercy
Quercy
Quercy is a former province of France located in the country's southwest, bounded on the north by Limousin, on the west by Périgord and Agenais, on the south by Gascony and Languedoc, and on the east by Rouergue and Auvergne....
restaurant. Scenes in the mattress store were filmed inside an abandoned warehouse, which cinematographer Peter Donahue described as "a big space with perfect texture on the walls and windows in the right places for motivated, practical light". Though the producers wanted to use 16 mm film
16 mm film
16 mm film refers to a popular, economical gauge of film used for motion pictures and non-theatrical film making. 16 mm refers to the width of the film...
because of the tight budget, Aselton and Donahue chose to use Super 35 format, mainly using medium-long lenses
Telephoto lens
In photography and cinematography, a telephoto lens is a specific type of a long-focus lens in which the physical length of the lens is shorter than the focal length. This is achieved by incorporating a special lens group known as a telephoto group that extends the light path to create a long-focus...
.
Release
The film premiered at the Toronto International Film FestivalToronto International Film Festival
The Toronto International Film Festival is a publicly-attended film festival held each September in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. In 2010, 339 films from 59 countries were screened at 32 screens in downtown Toronto venues...
on September 9, 2008. Following its screening at American Film Market
American Film Market
The American Film Market is a film industry event held each year at the beginning of November in Santa Monica, California. About 8,000 people attend the eight day event to network and to sell and acquire films...
, First Independent Pictures
First Independent Pictures
-History:First Independent Pictures was formed by company president Gary Rubin.The company has a number of titles in its library including Gigantic, Edmond, New York Doll, Big Fan, Moving McAllister, Holy Rollers, Dark Matter and Everything's Gone Green....
bought the film's North American distribution rights. The film was pre-screened at Vassar College in the fall of 2008. It was screened at the Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
Cinema on February 14, 2009 and in March at the Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema
Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema
The Buenos Aires Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente is an international festival of independent films organized each year in the month of April, in the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina.The festival is managed by the Ministerio de Cultura del Gobierno de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires, it is not...
and the AFI Dallas International Film Festival, where it won the Target Filmmaker Award for Best Narrative Feature. It was given a limited theatrical release
Limited release
Limited release is a term in the American motion picture industry for a motion picture that is playing in a select few theaters across the country ....
on April 3, 2009, coinciding with its showing at the Gen Art Film Festival
Gen Art Film Festival
Gen Art is an arts and entertainment organization that showcases emerging fashion designers, filmmakers, musicians and visual artists. It has produced over 100 events annually, which included fashion shows, film screenings, live music and art receptions and tours...
.
Reception
Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
critics give it 36%, with 27 of 75 fresh reviews (five of which were from one of its top critics). Slant Magazine
Slant Magazine
Slant Magazine is an online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New York Film Festival.- History :...
called the film a "meager sum of quirky details" and gave it (½ out of four stars), though it complimented Dano's "fine performance." Stephen Holden
Stephen Holden
Stephen Holden is an American writer, music critic, film critic, and poet.Holden earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Yale University in 1963...
called it a "serious comedy about the children of privilege...a cautiously surreal, absurdist movie" with a protagonist (played by Dano) who's a "close spiritual relative of the polite young men who drift through mumblecore
Mumblecore
Mumblecore is an American independent film movement that arose at the turn of the 21st century. Filmmakers associated with the movement include Andrew Bujalski, Lynn Shelton, Mark Duplass, Jay Duplass, Aaron Katz, Joe Swanberg, and Barry Jenkins....
films"; the review concludes:
- 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. Instead of the passionate '60s and '70s rebels pursuing authenticity in the material world, or '80s and '90s nihilists flamboyantly self-destructing, the movie's meek lovebirds only want something worth their commitment.
The Village Voice
The Village Voice
The Village Voice is a free weekly newspaper and news and features website in New York City that features investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts and music coverage, and events listings for New York City...
called it "another flimsy indie comedy for the heap" with a "screenplay's per-page quota of 'unexpected' tweaks [that leave] little room for much else."
Gigantic earned $102,704 in gross revenue in its limited thirteen-week, eleven-theater release, with its one-theater opening weekend collecting $10,294 of that total. Worldwide, the film grossed $165,888.