The Giant Mechanical Man

100 Movies In 100 Days
Movie 9 Day 9
The Giant Mechanical Man

Will this winter ever end? Thank goodness for movie days. Sometimes you need to watch a movie to help keep away the winter blues. My process for picking movies varies from week to week. The majority of the time I find an actor I like and watch everything I can get my hands on. In the case of The Giant Mechanical Man, I watched it because I found out Chris Messina was in it. If you ever have an opportunity to watch a movie with Chris Messina, you will not be disappointed. He is such a brilliant actor, he's brilliant on The Mindy Project.

Anyways, this review is about The Giant Mechanical Man. This movie stars Jenna Fisher as Janice, she is a woman walking aimlessly through life. She works from temp job to temp job like a zombie. Janice falls on hard times and moves in with her sister Jill, played by Malin Akerman. Jill keeps trying to set Janice up on dates with annoying motivational speaker Doug, played by Topher Grace. Janice decides to take a job at the zoo where she meets Tim, played by Chris Messina. Tim has a secret, he dresses as a mechanical man on stilts and dancing around the city for tips.

I found myself relating and connecting to Janice. She is having a hard time figuring out what she is supposed to be doing with her life. Everyone is trying to "fix" her and claim they know what is best. Janice has a hard time expressing what she wants and gaining her courage. She meets the Mechanical Man, not knowing it's Tim. She feels connected to him, she feels like an outsider. It's wonderful seeing Janice grow and become her own woman. She learns to love herself and opens herself to loving someone new.

Tim is a beautifully written character. He wants to bring people happiness, even if he has to wear metal paint to do it. He is desperate to connect with others but isn't sure how to do it. Once he meets Janice, he starts to see hope. He sees someone he can connect with. I think connecting with other people is something we can all relate to.

The only part I didn't enjoy was Topher Grace's character. He is a horrible, selfish cliche on the motivational speaker. It's probably not Topher's fault because the character is so dreadful. I found his character to be distracting from the plot and not in a good way. I would have preferred more time on other characters in the film. The rest of the movie is Brilliant if you can get past the Doug character.

Over all a charming independent film that I enjoyed. It made me want to work at a zoo. The Giant Mechanical Man reminds us that happiness is unique to our needs. It's okay to be selfish when it comes to your own happiness. Putting your foot down and knowing what you need for your future.