There's no way that "My Giant" sounds beforehand like a movie that's going to work as well as it ultimately does. Think about it. Billy Crystal as a wise-cracking hard-shell little New York talent agent who becomes humanized because of one of his clients. And the Washington Wizards' hulking 7'7" center, Gheorghe Muresan, as his giant client: a soulful behemoth who recites Shakespeare. What is this: "Broadway Danny Rose" crossed with "Of Mice and Men?" Give me a break.

Both story and casting seem pretty eccentric. The co-stars -- the Oscars' diminutive motormouth Crystal as agent Sammy and the Wizard's shot-blocking Romanian clodhopper Muresan as gentle giant Max -- hardly seem a modern Laurel and Hardy (or even a modern Mutt and Jeff.) Why should Crystal improve his recent lackluster string of star vehicles ("Forget Paris," "Father's Day")? Why should the untried Muresan -- whose primary acting exposure has been on Snickers commercials and who always seemed shaky with English -- work out any better than Crystal's last partner, "Father's day's" comic genius, Robin Williams?

Max seems perfect for the battle epic (a Joe Bob Briggs Z-level "Braveheart"). And he comes at the right time for Sammy, who's losing not only his clients but also his wife and son (Kathleen Quinlan and Zane Carney), who have split New York for Chicago. So Sammy talks the affable titan (whom the locals call "Diablo Grotesque") into leaving Romania for the U.S. There Sammy hopes to get Max a juicy villain role in a Steven Seagal thriller filming in Las Vegas -- and Max hopes to be reunited in Gallup, N.M., with his long-lost Romanian love, emigre Lillianna (Joanna Pacula), to whom he has written unanswered love letters for 23 years.