4/5 Two people love story
  by Tactic Kid (NLV, NV USA)
I really like the work from Zooey D. She is a unique character. The story works but it's pace is somewhat slow. I did enjoy watching it, even thou it starts cunfusingly.

1/5 gigantic
  by dvd bill
i watched this movie wanting more from it. i dont like the nasty words all the time. i would not watch this movie again

1/5 Hipster Fetish
  by P.S. Woods (Kansas City, MO United States)
As people get older, simple things in life become the source of great pleasure - e.g. bowel movements. Ed Asner must be really old, because he seemed to really enjoy dropping a gigantic deuce on this movie.

As someone else mentioned, the characters are absolutely unbelievable, even for a stylized, check-your-brain-out fantasy. Putting a dropout actor in a lab coat and putting a rat in his hand does not make him a scientist. HEY WHAT IF WE HAVE HIM DRINK BOOZE OUT OF A BEAKER!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sigh.

At first I thought it was shaping up as some kind of unfamiliar male fantasy. The cover suggests this for the same reason - the inexplicable appearance of whats-her-face, the hottie. Her motives are utterly alien, so I figured the character's mind is being driven by a screenwriter who has a specialty splash guard on his monitor. As it turns out, it wasn't shaping up at all. No character is developed to the point at which I could describe them, much less categorize them.

I'm sure the screenwriter set out to make this quirky - very deliberately, in-your-face quirky. IT'S LIEK TOTELY QUIRKY! I'M A MAKE IT LIEK THE TITANIC OF WES ANDERSON. It ends up being a menagerie of unconnected quirks in a timeline of unbelievable events yielding incompletely rendered characters telling an unfinished/unstarted story.

Suxxorz.

2/5 Try as they might, nothing interesting happens
  by EugeSchu (WI USA)
I was intrigued by this movie because I enjoyed the lead couple respectively from their quirky work in Little Miss Sunshine / Yes Man. I've seen half the movie thus far and this movie wants to be quirky and off-beat but doesn't deliver. Most disappointingly, it delves into the tired subjects of sex and drugs with shallow treatment. Also, the dialogue in the movie is flat and uninspired. It's particularly annoying how several individuals in the movie are supposedly doctor level education but use the vernacular of sophmoric losers. Paul Dano's desire to adopt a chinese baby is an attempt at cutey-quirky that really lacks authenticity. J. Goodman and E. Asner also have parts that don't sum-up and act them in an exaggerated style for pure spectacle. Too bad independent movies at times can't be more independent, but seem bent on copying some well-worn vibe of outsider cool. Thumbs down.

4/5 A Charming, Low-Key Film
  by Joshua Miller (Coeur d'Alene,ID)
Gigantic is another independent romantic-comedy starring Zooey Deschanel. Like other films of this sort that she's starred in, it's not your typical, everything-turns-out-fine, big box-office take romantic-comedy. Instead, it's a subtle, quirky film with whimsical characters that is hardly the first of it's kind, but is still a unique little movie.

Paul Dano (also the executive producer) is a mopey, 28-year-old mattress salesmen named Brian who's in the process of adopting a Chinese baby. One day, Al Lolly (John Goodman), a successful, loud-mouthed man with back problems comes in and buys a mattress. His daughter Happy (Deschanel) comes in to take care of the financial aspects and ends up falling asleep on one of the bed's.

Ed Asner co-stars as Brian's elderly father, while Zach Galifianakis (a recent scene-stealer in The Hangover) plays a mysterious, mute homeless man.

What is instantly striking is the unique characters and the subtle things that make them unique. One character introduces himself with "'sup dude? Not much," everytime he enters a room. There's the bizarre, mute homeless man of course. And how many beautiful, eccentric girls randomly fall asleep in a mattress warehouse? So, yes the character's are unique...But they don't come off as being written in such a way. My impression of the character's was not one of a writer saying "look at my unique characters!" They seem normal, real, just not without their eccentricities.

The acting really brings that quality out. Dano has played every sort of character and his quiet, disconnected Brian is another winning performance. Goodman has played a loud-mouthed, sympathetic character before and few actors are better at it. Finally, although not expanding her acting range much, Deschanel is a charmer...She once again plays a character that's reserved and complicated, but you can see how someone could instantly fall for her.

Gigantic did not blow me away, but it's got many admirable qualities. I enjoyed it's subtle, deadpan humor. It doesn't seem to reach for laughs, but will graciously accept them if the timing is right. Co-writer/director Matt Aselton marks his directorial debut here and he doesn't seem to have totally hit his creative stride yet. There are scenes in Gigantic that feel out-of-place, like Aselton didn't focus on a completely linear story arc. Also, I'm not sure about the necessity of the Galifianakis character.

Gigantic is an ironic title for a film of this scope. It's a simple film about complicated people that simplifies their "gigantic" complications in their otherwise typical, fruitless lives. It's low-key and light-on-it's-feet and although I enjoyed it, I couldn't help but think that it had more potential than it fulfilled. It's not perfect, but a strong debut by a filmmaker who could make something very special in the future.

GRADE: B-