"Gigantic" is a little elusive, even for the film's star.
"The title is so fitting, but I don't know if I could explain -- or if I want to -- what I think it means," Paul Dano says by phone from New York. Amid everyday hurdles and small acts of courage, Dano's character, Brian, a 28-year-old mattress salesman with much older, high-achieving brothers, faces down betes noires and romances a girl (played by Zooey Deschanel) as he pursues his dream of adopting a baby.
"Those small things, those life things, are so big for a person. It's everything and it's nothing. What could be more gigantic? Some people think 'Spider-Man' is gigantic, but that [role] felt gigantic to me."
That the thoughtful and articulate Dano has trouble pinning down the movie he executive produced is telling of director and co-writer Matt Aselton's debut. It's firmly rooted in reality but has important moments of surreality that keep the experience off a stable axis.
"I liked the element of mystery. I think some people won't; they'll want it explained," says Dano. "I like it that Brian has something going on that not everyone knows about, and that you have to figure him out a little bit."
The character is deceptively complex. At first blush, he might seem the sort of passive figure who often passes for a protagonist, someone to whom things happen. But as the actor points out, there's more to his behavior.
"He felt very normal but kept surprising me with his actions," says Dano. "He spoke through his actions, not his words as much. A pretty girl [sits on one of the showroom beds] and says, 'Can you see up my skirt?' He just looks and says, 'Not really.'
"Or showing up at her work -- that was, in a very small way, kind of heroic to me. I don't know if that's the appropriate term, but to me, those are brave things to do, actually. And he wants to adopt a kid. So there was something else to this guy you don't see on the surface.
"The mixture of repression -- or depression -- with confidence, was really intriguing. When I read it I felt like there was a lot to discover. And also, after 'There Will Be Blood,' it was great to read a comedy -- a romantic comedy -- that I liked."
The 24-year-old stage veteran relished the 180-degree turnaround from playing Eli Sunday in Paul Thomas Anderson's period film, especially because of this character's quality of being in the moment.
