In Reel Life: Giant Mechanical Man

by Roslyn Barrutia
KTSW Other Side Drive

When you’re in college, you always get asked the same questions, what are you going to do after you graduate?, Any plans?, Any jobs lined up? I don’t know about you but those questions stress me out to the max and I’m only in my 20’s. Well, in The Giant Mechanical Man, there are two 30 something-year-old people who are lost, trying to figure out what to do with their lives who are asking themseleves those same questions. Most people expect that in your 30’s, you’d be settling down, having kids, basically already have your life together. Yet, at the end, you see that these two people are perfectly content on how their lives are with eachother. Though, it didn’t start out that way in the beginning of the movie.

The Giant Mechanical Man stars Jenna Fisher as Janice and Chris Messina as Tim. When I first decided I was going to watch the film, I had no idea what I was about to watch. I didn’t realize it was going to be a film about self-discovery from two people that felt powerless until they realized their full potential by having eachother. It starts out with Janice being unemployed while Tim who is a robot/living statue on the streets of the city who recently got dumped for not always being fincianlly stable. Both get criticized contantly, for Janice, it’s her little sister who tries to help but instead belittles Janice. While Tim, tries to help brighten people’s day by being the giant mechanical man on the street but instead gets critcized for it not being a “real” job. One day, Tim gets interviewed on why he is the giant mechanical man and he responds, that he hopes that it will brighten someone’s day when they see him and they’re feeling lost and need something to make them feel less crazy. No one really understood that concept except for Janice.

I recommend anyone to watch this film. It reassures you that everyone goes through life at their own pace and to not let people tell you what you want. In the film, Janice tells Tim that when she was little, she wanted to grow up and tried to take out all our baby teeth because she thought that once her baby teeth were gone, her grown-up teeth would grow in and then she would be a grown-up. So, one time she tied her baby tooth to a door and tried to take it out but instead the door came back and hit her. She ended up getting stiches. I guess that was sign. Not everyone wants the same thing and even if you don’t know what you want, at least you know what you don’t want. And if you’re on the road of at least figuring out it then you’re fine. And that’s what The Giant Mechanical Man tells you. Tim at one point questions his talent but Janice is proof that he needs to be the giant mechanical man because she was one of those people he was reaching out to with his purpose.

Janice and Tim are trying to figure out what they are meant to do, knowing that they are meant for something but don’t know what. No one appreciates Tim’s talent of being the giant mechanical man but there’s Janice, the only person that truly understands what he stands for. And Tim knows Janice is meant for good and in a way, helps figure out what she is meant to do. As the movie says, it just takes that one person to support you and make you know your self-worth. They make eachother feel self-worth because that’s how they see the other person.  Everyone should defintely watch The Giant Mechanical Man, it’s a great film.