Missus and I could not decide what to watch last night, and after scrolling Netflix and then Amazon, then Netflix again, and finally back to Amazon, I just hit play on a movie with two decent actors in it (Chris Messina, Jenna Fischer). I figured if it was too crap she'd go read a book and I could get back to Fallout 4.
Anyway, I chose
THE GIANT MECHANICAL MAN (2012). It's an indie "charming romantic comedy". Basically the story of two people who are lost in their search for themselves/life/meaning, and who find in each other the "one person who makes them feel seen" or some form of that idea. It was 90 minutes but a looong 90, so that tells you something about the story or pacing at least. There were one or two (but definitely not 3) moments that made me laugh, a decent story, but it became hampered by sit-com style antics from Topher (Are You On fecking Crack, Man?) Grace, and Fischer's sister Malin Ackerman. Tonally it felt like Messina and Fischer were in a Hal Hartley movie while everyone else thought this was a Nora Ephron movie.
Topher Grace sucked fecking donkey balls and about ruined the movie, they even have a post-credit scene with him, which indicates they had the polar opposite reaction to his "performance" than I did.
There's a moment where the two would-be lovers finally get together, they kiss and then instantly it cuts to them in bed with the covers up to their armpits. This struck me as broadcast TV style. I think you can glean a lot about a character from the dance right up to the ball-slappin', whether that's a demure peeling off of clothes, or Person A throwing Person B on the table/bed/TV, etc. This struck me as a wasted opportunity and started to unravel the whole vibe. We've talked about this before here, but I don't necessarily need to see actors simulating boinking, but I do need to see some heat/passion between lovers, and sometimes you can approximate that with a sexy reveal or whatever. This was chaste to the point of silliness.
I should mention that the title does not refer to a robot and there are no robots in the movie, however, Messina's character is one of those guys who paints their faces silver and accosts strangers on the street pretending to be a mechanical man for tips. I feel they didn't close the loop on his story, because you are asked to accept that his choice to go do that shit everyday is a valid life choice that speaks to the inner sea of poetry and pathos that rages within him, when in reality, it's kinda fecking stupid. Fischer's character pulls herself out of her rut, but he trundles happily along, which felt like an oversight, but if resolving his arc meant another 5 minutes of film, they made the right decisions by ending this whole thing early.
I think this was an indie, which gives it a few more points, maybe 7/10, or a "C". I know the editor, I have to ask him WTF was going on with this.
nobody wants to read my ramblings