Cast your minds back, dear readers, all the way back to the dim and distant late summer of 2003. On August 1st (incidentally, my birthday), Martin Brest released a gangster comedy into theaters called Gigli (“It rhymes with ‘really,’” our hero would iterate). At the time, the world was growing a little tired of the enormous tabloid phenomenon then obnoxiously labeled “Bennifer.” The film’s two stars, Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez, were two rich, attractive showbiz people with nice skin and taut buttocks, whose well-moneyed relationship was better publicized than some wars. People hated them. A lot. People hated them more than they hated any other celebrity. If Hitler, New Coke, and Batman & Robin were somehow combined into a single amorphous being, it still wouldn’t be as hated as The Bennifer was in the summer of 2003.
And, as such, people loathed Martin Brest’s Gigli sight unseen. It was not a film so much as a further assault of the tabloid whirlwind humanity was then living through. What’s more, critics hated it, pretty unanimously rejecting it (it currently enjoys a paltry 6% on Rotten Tomatoes). Even the film’s defenders were apologists more than boosters. Gigli has officially reached legend status by 2014, often called one of the most loathsome films of all time. And yes, it is in the dubious pit of the IMDb’s Bottom 100.
Can it be that bad? Can Gigli really be the most horrid film of all time? Here at Trolling, it’s our job to re-examine both the beloved and the beloathed and to come up with contrary conclusions. Looking back at this legendary bomb reveals not only that it’s a pretty good film, but that – and we’ll just have to say it – Gigli RULES! Let’s run down a few reasons…
I can’t say too much in defense of Justin Bartha’s mentally retarded character, the film is a little too long, and the ultimate climax kind of peters out, but no one can deny that Gigli isn’t something new. I admire any filmmaker who tries to make something unique, tries out a new kind of film dialogue, and who succeeds even moderately. Gigli was successful in those things. The film deserves a second viewing.
Until next week, let the hate mail flow.
Witney Seibold is the head film critic for Nerdist, and a contributor on the CraveOnline Film Channel, and co-host of The B-Movies Podcast. You can read his weekly articles Trolling, and The Series Project, and follow him on “Twitter” at @WitneySeibold, where he is slowly losing his mind.
Five Reasons Why Gigli RULES!
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Great Dialogue
Martin Brest tried – and succeeded at – something that so few screenwriters even attempt anymore: Banter. He wrote his characters to each have their own light, particular patois, and allowed them to rant in their own idiom. The dialogue itself is flip, funny, and enjoyable, and doesn't sound like any other film. Any and all action blockbusters (yes, even your current favorites) have pretty interchangeable dialogue, usually featuring some variation of “Let's get out of there,” or, more tiresomely recent “Let's do this.” Gigli's dialogue I not cliché, not tired, and not boring. It's unique.
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Good Characters
The characters in Gigli are... weird. In an industry where most characters are slapped together, assembly-line style, from two or three character traits, or just adapted wholesale from some turgid source material, it's refreshing to have characters that have their own bizarre interests at the fore. Gigli himself is a gentle Jersey Guido with bizarre theories of masculinity. Ricki is a feisty Latina lesbian who knows kung fu. Putting these two together isn't so much comedy gold as it is a new mixture that hasn't been tried. And that's so, so refreshing.
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Examination of Sex
There is a famous pair of monologues that occurs about halfway through Gigli wherein Gigli and Ricki compare and examine the physical structures of male and female genitals, arguing for the superiority of one or the other. Are the monologues kind of silly? I suppose so; people don't really talk like that. But these speeches – and indeed the entire film's constant banter about sex and sexuality – kind of clear the air. Too many films shy away from frankness, allowing their characters to be shy and to not say things. Gigli lays it all bare, articulating things that other films tend to swallow and blush over.
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This Scene
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Is Bennifer As Awful as They All Say?
The quick answer is no. Ben Affleck has, by now, clawed his way back into the world's good graces with a series of soulful crime dramas, one of which won an Academy Award for Best Picture. But at the time, he was called a bad actor. Ben Affleck has never been a bad actor, guys. Leave him alone. He may be a pretty boy, and he typically plays to his strengths (self-deprecating charmers are his beat), but he actually shows some range in Gigli, playing a tough guy convincingly. As for Lopez, she's a very natural actress who possesses a cute and fun energy that's hard to deny. Also she's still great to look at. If we take them as actors as not as tabloid caricatures, we'll find that they're not the awful demons that they got credit for being. No, they are not awful.
