Brian Weathersby (Paul Dano) is a 28-year-old salesman who works in a Swedish mattress company in New York City. His parents (Ed Asner, Jane Alexander) have always known that he is not a go-getter like his two older brothers — an oil man (Ian Roberts) and a surgeon (Robert Stanton). Rather, he's a laid-back, gentle soul who had been eagerly awaiting news about the biggest and most important project of his life — adopting a baby from China. But his plans are changed when he meets Harriet Lolly (Zooey Deschanel) who draws him into her wobbly and confused life after falling asleep on one of the mattresses in his store. Her wealthy, art-collecting father Al (John Goodman) is happy to have found a bed that can be therapeutic for his bad back. Harriet is fascinated by Brian's goodness but doesn't know whether she wants to commit to a long-term relationship.

Matt Aselton is the writer and director of this oddball romantic comedy. It is refreshing to see the main character as a nurturing male who operates from the heart rather than from the head. Dano is convincing as the befuddled salesman who doesn't know how to handle Harriet's unconventional ways. As always Zooey Deschanel lights up the screen even when playing a ditzy woman who hasn't got a clue about what she wants.

The light-hearted nature of Gigantic is thrown off kilter by a message scene that has no function in the movie and the random attacks on Brian by a deranged homeless man who seems to have a compulsion to do him bodily harm. Or maybe this ominous fellow has been dredged up from Brian's psyche as a sign of his secret self-disgust.

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