REVIEWS
Anne Hathaway controlling a giant monster rampaging through Seoul with her mind.
As premises go, Colossal is far from run-ofthe-mill, but given it comes from the mind of Spanish writer-director Nacho Vigalondo – who helmed twisty 2007 sci-fi mystery Timecrimes – perhaps it should come as no surprise that the story is so out there.
Hathaway’s New York party girl Gloria is forced to move back to her small home town, where she reunites with childhood friend Oscar (Jason Sudeikis) and discovers her jawdropping connection to the enormous reptilian kaiju.
Like Drinking Buddies-meets-Godzilla, Colossal mashes up the indie comedy with blockbuster-style destruction to enjoyable – but flawed – effect.
Vigalondo squeezes every cent out of his relatively small $15 million budget to film some genuinely impressive monster effects that suggest he’s worth a punt to direct a major franchise tent-pole.
His strange beast of a movie also never heads in the directions you expect it to; for every frequently dark-toned laugh there’s a surprising turn deep into a character’s troubled physique – or creature destruction.
Keeping the audience going every step of the way is a plucky Hathaway – no stranger to this type of role via her work in Rachel Getting