Hathaway highlight in engrossing character study
COLOSSAL (15)
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.
New York City party girl Gloria (Hathaway) fails to get a grip on her hard-drinking ways and her straight-laced boyfriend Tim (Dan Stevens) throws her out of his apartment.
Gloria returns in shame to her sleepy upstate home town to crash in her parents’ old house, which has been vacant since they retired to sunnier climes.
By chance, she crosses paths with childhood friend Oscar (Sudeikis) and makes insensitive small talk about the health of his mother.
‘Don’t you remember? You were still living here. You went to the funeral,’ he responds with bemusement.
Regardless, nice guy Oscar donates unwanted furniture to help Gloria get back on her feet and offers her a job at his bar, which he inherited from his father.
‘It’s like a Wes Anderson movie in here,’ she coos, surveying a western-themed area untouched by refurbishment.
Gloria begins to turn her life around and she forges friendships with Oscar’s buddies Garth (Tim Blake Nelson) and Joel (Austin Stowell).
Breaking news about the sudden appearance of a giant creature in Seoul sends shockwaves around the world, and a dumbfounded Gloria discovers she is connected to this horned harbinger of doom.
Flashbacks to a traumatic childhood incident reveal the catalyst for this incredible meeting of human and monster minds.
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 headon and demons closer to home.
Sudeikis is a wonderful foil and there is solid support from Stevens, Nelson and Stowell as the unsuspecting men caught in the crossfire of a truly epic battle of the sexes.
RATING: 7.5/10