Gigantic: Swimming in the Deep End
I was going to do a post on Avatar after having seen it just before Christmas, however, another film recently caught my mind and I’m much more intrigued to explore it for the moment. Every once in a while, you see a film that at first leaves you thinking “well, that was odd, but I think I liked it.” While I am very into the films like those of Terry Gilliam and Michel Gondry, even I get caught off guard every once in a while. Later on, however, as the tendrils of the story sink deeper into your mind, you make suddenly wake up thinking, “wait a minute, I think I get it!” So it was when I saw Rebel Without a Cause, and so it is now after having seen Gigantic.
Overall this was a wonderful film, even if it leaves you feeling a bit off-kilter at first. There are some scenes to be careful of if you’re sensitive (read: the massage parlor), but it is worth the investment of your time and a bit of coffee afterwards. Again, beware, for spoilers follow…
On the surface, Matt Aselton’s quirky little film seems to be not much more than an indie rom-com with the additional draw of having both Paul Dano and Zooey Deschanel in it. The film follows the unlikely couple as they meet in a high-end mattress store where Brian (Dano) has just recently sold a $14,000 bed to Happy’s (Deschanel) father (who is hilariously played by John Goodman). Over the course of the film, it is revealed that Brain’s parents are much older, his brothers extremely successful, and all hoping that he’ll make something of himself soon. Happy, on the other hand, is a child of hyper-wealthy divorced parents, with an absentee mother and a demanding, if somewhat supporting hypochondriac father. In addition, we learn that Brian has long been in the process of adopting a child from China, and that Happy has “switched careers five times in five years.” Both are in their twenties, and both are quirky and blunt, seemingly staple requirements of any central characters in independent films these days.
While adding all of these interesting facts together may have been enough to create an entertaining ninety-minute story, if we look a little more carefully, we find that there is in fact something more going on under the surface. As the film opens, we see two rats swimming in a tank, being observed by Brian’s scientist-friend as part of an experiment to apparently find more powerful anti-depressants. In this scene is contained the critical seed of thought that is necessary to understand the film; as Brian’s friend Larry puts it, “when forced into an adverse situation, i.e. being dumped into a pool, the rat will oscillate between attempts to escape and resigning to its fate.” In addition, Larry connects the dots for us: the same drugs administered that make the rats want to keep swimming are the same ones that help in relieving depression.
At first we think these opening lines are setting up Brian’s demeanor in counterpoint to his imminent meeting with Happy and her free-spirited nature. Indeed, the next scene reinforces this belief as Brian is attacked by a homeless man (played by Zach Galifianakis) and seems to eventually give up and allow himself to be punched and beaten. As we begin to watch Brian and Happy come together, then, we’re tempted to think that their relationship is the “pool”, and that Brian may well end up sinking rather than swimming. Many indicators in the film point in this direction, as Brian’s family and friends seem very concerned that his relationship goes well and that he finally “makes it.” In the midst of this, the homeless man becomes a recurring character (possibly symbolizing Brian’s long-time struggle with depression, as is later revealed) who is always lurking in – and sometimes attacking from – the shadows, hinting to the audience that Brian is doomed to eventually give up on this as well.
It would be an oversimplification, however, to think that Brian is the only character in conflict in the film. At a critical moment in the middle of the film, both characters go skinny dipping in a pool in the middle of the night. The scene echoes the rats in the tank from earlier in the film, and Happy’s hesitancy at jumping in points to deeper struggles ahead for her as well. While cheery, odd, and fun to have on screen, she is not without her own set of demons. Hers may not manifest as a darkly-comical, homicidal homeless man, but they do emerge nonetheless.
When Brian discovers that he has finally been selected as an adoptive parent and reveals it to Happy, she suddenly has a case of nerves and quickly leaves for the bathroom and throws up – apparently from the anxiety. She then bolts from room, leaving Brian bewildered as to what had gone wrong. The next day, when she attempts to track down and call her mother for advice, she gets only the semi-coherent ramblings of a woman who can barely recognize her. Her mother seems to be struggling with some kind of depression herself, and is likely highly medicated to boot – her absenteeism and flight from Happy’s life could be taken as having “sunk” herself. Over the next few scenes, we see the irony of Happy’s name, as she prepares for flight from the situation and struggles with overwhelming feelings of despair and guilt. Indeed, Happy’s mom had already stopped swimming, so the question remains whether Happy would as well.
In this case, the fact that the characters are in their twenties is not an accident of genre, but in fact a critical aspect of understanding the film. While it is highly unlikely for a single 28-year old man to be able to adopt a child, it is not beyond the realm of possibility that one might suddenly become a father, and his companion an surprised and fearful mother. In a sense, the film uses the device of the child from China to set up a very real situation where two twenty-something people unexpectedly become parents in the midst of their free-spirited exploration of life. The director, however, cleverly masks this meaning by having Brian, rather than Happy, reveal that he is about to have a child, even though Happy’s “morning sickness,” seems to give us enough of a clue in this direction. Add to that the specter of depression that is constantly referred to in the film (and every once in a while personified), and you have the perfect recipe for a film geared toward twenty-somethings who feel that they’ve been thrown into the deep end. It is not their relationship that is the pool, but life itself, and for these two young parents, the choice is now either to sink (by escaping or running away to a different career/life/relationship) or swim.
