COLOSSAL (15) 7.5

Spanish writer-director Nacho Vigalondo plays with madness in his brilliantly bonkers homage to Godzilla, which projects the monster-mashing mayhem through the lens of an offbeat indie romantic comedy. Thematically, there are faint echoes of M. Night Shyamalan’s unconventional superhero film Unbreakable, but Colossal is very much its own beast, anchored by an eye-catching performance from Anne Hathaway as a struggling alcoholic, whose recovery coincides with the emergence of a towering creature on the other side of the world. Jason Sudeikis also plays against type to delicious effect as a bar owner, whose jealousy conjures something scarier and far more destructive than a green-eyed behemoth. The leads enjoy simmering on-screen chemistry that lights the touchpaper on cataclysmic events on two continents, positing tantalising questions about the thin line separating unlikely heroes from villains. Predictability has been largely eradicated from the picture’s warped DNA and we take great delight from the twists and turns in Vigalondo’s fantastical narrative, augmented with impressive digital effects that never threaten to overwhelm the emotional components. Colossal is an engrossing and intimate character study with grand ambitions, realised in broad strokes by Vigalondo and his special effects team. Hathaway welcomes us into her character’s delirium, compelling us to root for her as she confronts her addiction head-on and demons closer to home.