The Obsessive Viewer

I went into The Giant Mechanical Man totally blind. The only thing I knew about it was that it’s an indie starring Jenna Fischer and Chris Messina. Even then, I didn’t know Messina was in it until I accidentally saw his name on the Netflix page.

I need to do that with movies more. The Giant Mechanical Man helped me remember how much I enjoy “discovering the plot” of a movie. This isn’t a bad movie to do that with either. If you want to go in blind like I did, I suggest you stop reading here because I’m about to give away some plot details.

The movie is a romantic drama about two lost people finding each other. Tim is a man who spends his time on stilts dressed as a “mechanical man” in an effort to show people that the world is crazy. Janice is a single woman with no job or direction. Then they get jobs at the zoo and meet.

It’s a very charming movie. I’m a fan of both Messina and Fischer. And they have really great chemistry here. The supporting cast is good too. Malin Akerman plays Janice’s overbearing sister. She and her husband (played by Rich Sommer) spend the movie trying to set her up with Topher Grace.

Topher Grace plays obnoxious author Doug Duncan and he steals every scene. There’s a painfully uncomfortable date scene that had me laughing pretty hard.

Between Grace and the chemistry of the two leads, the movie is definitely worth a viewing. It’s not a bad way to spend an hour and a half. Considering it’s the first effort of Fischer’s writer/director husband Lee Kirk, The Giant Mechanical Man has me interested in what he does next.

You can stream The Giant Mechanical Man on Netflix.

Buy The Giant Mechanical Man on Amazon.

As always, don’t forget to follow me on Twitter and like the blog on Facebook.