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May 2, 2012
Review: The Giant Mechanical Man
— Posted by Ryan
Synopsis: A man dresses as a silver painted robot and inspires a woman to look at her life from a different perspective while those surrounding her consistently try to take control of her life. The film starts off by taking a quick snapshot of the life of both Janice (Jenna Fischer) and Tim (Chris Messina) where you can quickly see how disconnected they are from society. Tim dresses as a giant robotic man as a form of artistic expression to help himself cope with the routine of life. Doing this seems to give him a perspective that Janice is lacking and desires. Janice is constantly attempting to fall into “the norm” but cannot seem to find what she wants. She finds herself to be bored and uninspired which leads to her being laid off. After losing her job, Janice is forced to move in with her sister Jill (Malin Akerman) because of her inability to pay rent. Around the same time Tim’s girlfriend is leaving him because of the way he lives his life and his obsession with his street performance. The film progresses in a step by step manner, showing the audience the similarities in the conflicts of each of the main characters’ lives. This slow progression provides an adequate and clear understanding that Tim and Janice should and will be able to relate to each other because of their struggles. The side characters are the obstacles that stand in Janice and Tim’s way of achieving what they want. Janice’s sister Jill is consistently trying to rearrange Janice’s life in what she thinks is a positive way. In doing so, she introduces Janice to a motivational speaker named Doug (Topher Grace) with whom she continually pushes Janice to pursue romantically. Doug and Tim are complete opposites which is nice because it provides a balance of characters and ties in a great protagonist and antagonist to the story. Tim is confident yet humble while Doug is stereotypically arrogant and self involved.  Tim's transformation...  Hi there, let me tell you how to live your life... I think the most important thing about this film is its theme. The title itself is a metaphor that defines the theme. “The Giant Mechanical Man” represents people that have fallen so far into the routine of life that they have become metaphorical robots who focus more on completing tasks than living their lives. Character development is an important aspect of this film but the actions of these characters are what is reinforcing the overall theme. To call this film a love story would be a simplification of what it truly is, a life story. The film deals with love but it deals more with people just trying to find their way. Love is an effect from the search for life. In searching for their desires in life, two people find each other when searching for the same thing. The character relationships in the film show how one person can break you from the chains of routine and how others can lock you in. There is a set of back to back scenes that depict the difference between routine and choice. In one scene Janice is with Doug in a very familiar restaurant environment having dinner and very standard conversations. A following scene shows Janice with Tim at a random party at a very unique location surrounded by a lot of energy. The two scenes give a visual explanation of the choices in life, you can either spend your time doing things that are familiar to you or you can step off the paved path and maybe discover something new. Another interesting thing about the film is that its pace is set by the theme. When the characters following routine are in a scene, the film progresses more slowly and seems drab while the exact opposite occurs when Tim and Janice are sharing a scene.  Simple is extraordinary if it's with the right person
Final Thoughts:I liked this film a lot and I loved the dynamics of most characters. The characters were easy to relate to for most people and it keeps the audience connected to the film. The message that this film sends was inspirational and gives a very positive perspective on life and love. I saw Tim’s portrayal of a robotic man as a representation of what our lives should and should not be. “The Giant Mechanical Man” is a metaphor for personal creativity and inspiration in order to pursue what your own art may be. My only gripes about the film would be my hope to see Fischer break out of a type cast role and that the film could have been longer to develop the characters further. I will say (without revealing) that the ending was truly poetic in its simplicity and it wrapped up the film nicely despite the fact that I still wanted more…which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.  Inspiration can be anywhere
This post was written by :
Ryan who has written 175 posts on The Movie Blog First and foremost, Ryan Brown is a fan. He has been an avid fan of both the theater and cinema since an early age and his passion for both has been continually growing ever since. When dissecting a film, he focuses on all elements of film-making including some fan/cult factors. He believes that character development is the foundation of a good film and usually starts his analysis of a film from there moving forward. His writing style may be influenced by his background of narrative and argumentative studies in the subject, but he tends to enjoy a more conversational style to better interact with the readers, unlike some other pretentious and pompous writers.  Around the Web
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Most of these indie romantic comedies are simply awful exploitation films, lacking strong characters, and worst of all, usually have terrible chemistry between the two leads. To that end, Jenna Fischer and Chris Messina exude a natural chemistry that never seems too forced or awkward, despite both of their characters being kind of awkward losers.From the moment they meet (in a great scene which was also made better by the use of "Our Bleeding Hearts" by Great Northern) Fischer and Messina's characters play so well off each other that I was able to forgive this movie for having a few common problems with this genre (such as Topher Grace's 'rival' character who is really just a cartoon pardoy). I'll give this a solid 7/10.