Gigli is a 2003 American romantic comedy film written & directed by Martin Brest, starring Ben Affleck, Jennifer Lopez, Justin Bartha, Al Pacino, Christopher Walken and Lainie Kazan.
Popular media gave attention and interest to the film during production, primarily because Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez (the film's stars) were romantically involved at the time.
After the film's release, critical reaction was universally negative and in the years since its release, "Gigli" has been considered one of the worst films of all time.
It was film was also one of the more expensive box office bombs in history, grossing $7.2 million against a $75.6 million budget.
Plot[]
| Spoiler Warning: The following contains important plot details of the entire film. |
Larry Gigli (Ben Affleck) is a low-ranking Los Angeles mobster who isn't nearly as tough as he likes to act. He is commanded to kidnap the mentally challenged younger brother of a powerful federal prosecutor to save New York-based mob boss Starkman (Al Pacino) from prison.
Gigli successfully convinces the young man, Brian (Justin Bartha) to go off with him by promising to take him "to the Baywatch" which seems to be Brian's singular obsession, and turns out to just be the beach.
The man who ordered the kidnapping, Louis (Lenny Venito), does not trust Gigli to get the job done right, so he hires a woman calling herself Ricki (Jennifer Lopez) to take charge.
Gigli is attracted to Ricki, but he resents the fact that Louis does not have faith in him and that he has to take orders from a woman. He is also frustrated by Brian's insistence on going to "the Baywatch" and by Ricki's being a lesbian.
A suspicious detective (Christopher Walken) comes to the apartment to question Gigli if he is aware of Brian's disappearance. Gigli, who is further annoyed when his mother (Lainie Kazan) takes an immediate liking to Ricki, both of them needling him.
The events take a darker turn when Gigli and Ricki receive orders to cut off Brian's thumb, something neither wants to do. Worse, Ricki's ex-girlfriend, Robin (Missy Crider), shows up at Gigli's apartment, accusing her of changing sexual orientation. She slits her wrists and has to be rushed to the hospital.
While at the hospital, Gigli goes to the morgue and cuts off a corpse's thumb, which he sends to the prosecutor as Brian's thumb. Gigli and Ricki go back to Gigli's apartment where he confesses his love, and the two sleep together.
They are summoned to meet with the mob's boss. Starkman reveals that he didn't approve of the plan to kidnap a federal prosecutor's brother or cut off the thumb and rages at them because the thumb they sent didn't match Brian's fingerprint, nullifying any potential for coercing the prosecutor; he then kills Louis, presumably for the kidnapping and stirring a hornet's nest in law enforcement.
Starkman is about to kill Ricki and Gigli as well, but Ricki talks him out of it by pointing out that only they know where Brian is and only they can silence him and prevent him from fingering Starkman in the kidnapping.
They leave Starkman's, decide to leave the mob and discuss taking Brian back to where they found him.
On the way, they discover Baywatch (or a similarly themed show or film) shooting an episode on the beach. Brian begs to be let off there and finally they consent. Gigli convinces Ricki to take his car, but at the last minute, Ricki returns and picks her up and they leave town together.
All of the characters are transformed by the episode.
Louis's mob is disrupted, Gigli has dropped his hyper-masculine facade, Ricki has a heterosexual fling with Gigli & Brian gradually emerges from his shell, noticing other people and conversing.
Cast[]
- Ben Affleck as Larry Gigli
- Jennifer Lopez as Ricki/Rochelle
- Justin Bartha as Brian
- Lainie Kazan as Mrs. Gigli
- Al Pacino as Starkman
- Lenny Venito as Louis
- Christopher Walken as Detective Stanley Jacobellis
- Missy Crider as Robin
- Terrence Camilleri as Man in dryer
Production[]
"Gigli" was shot on location throughout Long Beach and Los Angeles, California.
Halle Berry was originally going to act in the film opposite Ben Affleck, but she ended up dropping out.
The film started out as a straightforward mob film until Columbia (against Martin Brest's wishes) turned it into a romantic comedy to cash in on the relationship between Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez.
Jennifer Lopez was paid $12,000,000 for her role in the film while Ben Affleck was paid $12,500,000 for his role. Both of their salaries combined are more than three times the film's overall worldwide gross of $7,266,209.
Altogether, the film stays nearly 52 minutes in Larry Gigli's apartment, nearly half of the total running time without credits. The interior of Gigli's apartment was built on a soundstage.
Box Office[]
"Gigli" grossed $3,753,518 in its opening weekend from 2,215 theaters averaging $1,694 per theater and ranking #8 at the box office.
It set a record to date for the biggest second-weekend drop in box office gross of any film in wide release since that statistic was kept; it dropped by 81.9% in its second weekend compared to its first, grossing $678,640.
By its third weekend in release, only 73 US theaters were showing "Gigli", a 97% drop from its first weekend. It ultimately earned $6,087,542 domestically and $1,178,667 internationally for a total of $7,266,209 on a $75.6 million production budget.
The film was withdrawn from US theaters after only three weeks (one of the shortest circulation times for a big-budget film), earning a total of only $6 million domestically and $1 million abroad.
In the United Kingdom, the film was dropped by virtually every cinema after critics panned it.
In 2014, The Los Angeles Times listed "Gigli" as one of the most expensive box office flops of all time.
Critical Reception[]
On Rotten Tomatoes, "Gigli" has a rating of 6%, based on 183 reviews, with an average rating of 2.7/10.
The critical consensus states: "Bizarre and clumsily plotted, Gigli is a mess. As for its stars, Affleck and Lopez lack chemistry."
On Metacritic, the film has a score of 18 out of 100, based on 37 critics, indicating "overwhelming dislike".
On Ebert and Roeper, critics Roger Ebert and Richard Roeper both gave the film thumbs down, although Ebert showed some sympathy towards the film, stating it had "clever dialogue", but was "...too disorganized for me to recommend it".
Roeper called the film "a disaster" and "one of the worst movies I've ever seen". He then included Gigli on his 100 worst films of the decade at #7.
Ebert and James Berardinelli were two of the very few major critics to not write it off completely. Ebert gave the film two and a half stars out of four, saying, "They didn't quite get to where they wanted to be, but the film is worth seeing for some very good scenes."
Berardinelli gave it two stars, saying, "This isn't a good film, but, when set alongside the likes of Dumb and Dumberer and Legally Blonde 2, Jen & Ben offer less pain."
Entertainment Weekly's Owen Gleiberman gave the film a "C+", stating, "A watchable bad movie, but it's far from your typical cookie-cutter blockbuster. There are no shoot-outs or car chases, and there isn't much romantic suspense, either."
One of the few positive reviews came from Amy Dawes of Variety, who wrote that the story was ludicrous and that the film would tank, but that on balance she found it a fun film with several good performances.
Accolades[]
"Gigli" was nominated for nine and received six Razzies in the 2003 Golden Raspberry Awards: Worst Picture, Worst Actor, Worst Actress, Worst Director, Worst Screenplay and Worst Screen Couple.
A year later, it won a seventh Razzie for "Worst Comedy of Our First 25 Years".
The film was also nominated for eleven and received five Stinkers Bad Movie Awards in 2003; "Worst Actor and Worst Fake Accent - Male, Worst Actress" and "Worst Fake Accent - Female and Worst On-Screen Couple."
Legacy[]
The film title was named by the Global Language Monitor as one of the top words from Hollywood having an impact on the English language in 2003.
Late night talk show hosts in particular lampooned the film in their monologues; Conan O'Brien said, "The Mets are doing so badly that they will be renamed "The New York Gigli"."
Yahoo! Movies rates Gigli number one on their Bottom Rated Movies of All Time with a critics' rating of D−.
The Onion (a satirical newspaper) ran an article about the film, titled "Gigli focus groups demand new ending in which Affleck and Lopez die."
In May 2015, The Hollywood Reporter named Gigli #25 on its list of "50 Worst Movie Titles of All Time".
Trailer[]
Gigli Theatrical Trailer