Gigantic

If you find that the romantic woes of artsy, middle-class white kids are beginning to lose their lustre, it’s probably best to avoid ‘Gigantic’, a film so quirkily self-aware it might as well have ‘Property of Sundance Film Festival’ stencilled on to every frame. It’s not that writer-director Matt Aselton’s film lacks charm or insight. It’s just that the issues which preoccupy him – urban ennui, guilty lust, impossible love, shambolic indie rock – also fascinate just about every other white American twentysomething with a camera.

Paul Dano is agreeably awkward as directionless bed salesman Brian Weathersby, whose plan to adopt a Chinese orphan is put on hold when he meets Zooey Deschanel’s sexually aggressive Happy, while John Goodman amply fills the big-name-in-flashy- -character-role requirement as her overbearing father. ‘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. So while Aselton has nothing new to offer, he still manages to raise the occasional sympathetic smile.