William Macy continues to show us why he is one of the very best actors working today. One may not necessarily like all his movies, but Macy never fails to create a memorable role. Here is is simply "Gigot", the building "super", lives in a very messy and primitive basement apartment. And is mute. He does his job, and is very good at it, but seldom smiles. We get the feeling that he is not very happy inside, his only friend the cute pet monkey "Grace" that he carries around in a vented bowling bag. A little girl named 'Lou' (Keke Palmer) becomes a thorn in his side. The story is set during the December/January holiday times, and was filmed in Montreal. The characters move among Philadelphia, Chicago, and St Louis, sometimes by bus and sometimes by plane, but it is never clear where it is set. A superb story of friendship, family, and redemption. Highly recommended.
SPOILERS are contained in the rest of my comments. As the story unfolds we find that Gigot, a decorated war veteran, was in a car wreck in St Louis in 1976 which killed his younger sister, and left him without a voice box. After that he became estranged from his family for 28 years, didn't even know his mother had died, he had such guilt. The wool cap he wore always had been his sister's, and one day at an amusement park panicked when the cap was missing after a roller coaster ride, and he managed to find it. His wearing the cap was symbolic of never having forgiven himself, when he finally did after a visit to a church decorating for Christmas, finally threw the cap away. Lou gets abandoned by her mother, and crashes in Gigot's place. They go to Philly to find her, mom is doing drugs, Gigot doesn't tell Lou, they go back home, later they find she died of overdose. Lou is smart and sassy, but has a bad habit of petty theft. She gets into a detention center, while Gigot is trying to find a way to become her foster dad. He is a felon, seeks help of dad and stepmother in St Louis, dad is angry, later relents as stepmom helps, the movie should have ended when Gigot and Lou were facing each other through the detention center fence, snowing, he said using sign language that he wanted to be her dad. It actually ended with one more scene, a year later, Gigot was working for his dad in building supply, happy and successful, picks up Lou after school for Christmas holidays. Ned Beatty plays got's father and Don Rickles plays the helpful neighbor in Gigot's building.
SPOILERS are contained in the rest of my comments. As the story unfolds we find that Gigot, a decorated war veteran, was in a car wreck in St Louis in 1976 which killed his younger sister, and left him without a voice box. After that he became estranged from his family for 28 years, didn't even know his mother had died, he had such guilt. The wool cap he wore always had been his sister's, and one day at an amusement park panicked when the cap was missing after a roller coaster ride, and he managed to find it. His wearing the cap was symbolic of never having forgiven himself, when he finally did after a visit to a church decorating for Christmas, finally threw the cap away. Lou gets abandoned by her mother, and crashes in Gigot's place. They go to Philly to find her, mom is doing drugs, Gigot doesn't tell Lou, they go back home, later they find she died of overdose. Lou is smart and sassy, but has a bad habit of petty theft. She gets into a detention center, while Gigot is trying to find a way to become her foster dad. He is a felon, seeks help of dad and stepmother in St Louis, dad is angry, later relents as stepmom helps, the movie should have ended when Gigot and Lou were facing each other through the detention center fence, snowing, he said using sign language that he wanted to be her dad. It actually ended with one more scene, a year later, Gigot was working for his dad in building supply, happy and successful, picks up Lou after school for Christmas holidays. Ned Beatty plays got's father and Don Rickles plays the helpful neighbor in Gigot's building.