This is a monster movie with a difference
that’s likely to divide audiences, not to mention critics. (Review by Patrick
Compton - 5/10)
I’m always grateful for movies that come
out of left field, however flawed they may be. Screenwriters and directors who
take chances are to be treasured.
That doesn’t mean, I’m sad to say, that
Spanish writer-director Nacho Vigalondo’s Colossal
is an unqualified success. Truth to tell, it’s hard to know what to make of
this film which affixes a fairly ordinary human drama to a monster movie.
The delicious Anne Hathaway plays Gloria,
an alcoholic who gets turfed out of their shared New York flat by her disapproving
boyfriend, Tim (Dan Stevens of Downton
Abbey fame) because he only gets to see her when she’s in the throes of yet
another hangover.
Gloria decides to get her act together by
relocating back to her small town home where she links up with an old school
chum, Oscar (Jason Sudeikis), and starts working at his bar, not the most
appropriate of jobs for a lush.
This ho-hum narrative is then rather
outlandishly joined at the hip by a shocking event in Seoul, South Korea, where
a monster that looks an awful lot like Godzilla starts trashing the city. To
her extreme consternation, Gloria starts to identify with the monster,
gradually coming to believe that, in some weird way, she and the creature have
plenty in common.
At this stage, you may be delighting in
what you believe to be a witty extended metaphor about how excessive drink can
bruise your persona as well as damage others, or you may be tearing your hair
out, concluding that this tale is illogical, far-fetched and stupid. The most
generous assessment is that there’s a bit of both in this movie which probably
only got made because Hathaway agreed to come on board as the film’s star and
executive producer.
Either way, you’ll probably be grateful for
Hathaway’s presence, as she holds the movie together with yet another beguiling
performance. As for the whacky plot, if you love the movie you’ll probably find
a way to make sense of it. One question that may fairly be asked, however, is
that if Colossal is an investigation,
at least in part, into an alcoholic’s destructive self-image, why do the people
of Seoul have to suffer? Or is this movie also an oblique attack on American
imperialism? The mind boggles.
Colossal opened on April 13, 2018, at Gateway Mall. - Patrick Compton
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