Everyone has issues. Whether that particular issue is major
or minor, each of us do our best to keep it under control, but at some point we
inevitably hurt someone we don’t intend to because of it. Even when things are
at their worst, however, there’s generally a safe (usually unspoken) assumption
that whatever problems we have, they won’t result in a giant beast laying waste
to a major city in South Korea. But that’s precisely the situation faced by
Anne Hathaway in “Colossal,” a film that’s part indie comedy, a little bit
psychodrama, and a heaping bit monster movie. Because, man, there just aren’t
any original ideas out there anymore, are there?
Hathaway
plays Gloria, an unemployed writer and barely-functioning alcoholic; she’s kind
of a mess. Her boyfriend, Tim (Dan Stevens, fresh off playing a beast himself),
is fed up with Gloria returning home as the sun comes up, fumbling her way
through whatever excuse she’s managed to devise while staggering home in a
boozy haze, and decides he’s had enough. He kicks her out of the Manhattan
apartment they share. With nowhere else to go, Gloria returns to the Upstate
New York hometown she left behind to lick her wounds and figure things out.
Shortly after arriving, Gloria reconnects by chance with a former elementary
school classmate, Oscar (Jason Sudeikis).
Oscar offers
her a job waitressing at the bar he inherited from his father. Paying no heed
to the fact that a bar might not be the best place of employment for someone
with a penchant for getting blackout drunk, Gloria accepts Oscar’s generous
offer, figuring she can make some money to get herself back on her feet. Every
night, she stays after hours, getting tanked and hanging with Oscar and his
buddies (Tim Blake Nelson and Austin Stowell). At this point you may think that
you know where all this is headed, and for a time the film progresses in
familiar fashion.
But after
yet another night of heavy drinking, Gloria awakens to frantic news reports: an
enormous monster has attacked the city of Seoul, raining down destruction,
demolishing buildings, and terrorizing the populace. The world stands in shock,
watching breathless reports covering the devastation as the Godzilla-like beast
reappears day after day. The mayhem continues, and slowly Gloria begins to
realize that she may have a mysterious connection to the creature wreaking
havoc on the opposite side of the world.
Despite
boasting the year’s most out-there premise, once you think about it the idea
behind “Colossal” isn’t quite as crazy as it at first seems. (I mean, how many
people have you met who become monsters when they’ve had too much to drink?)
Some of the specifics of its ingenious central metaphor admittedly get a bit
muddled as the story unfolds. And writer-director Nacho Vigalondo
(“Timecrimes”) caves somewhat by eventually providing a half-hearted
explanation for these strange occurrences — which really isn’t necessary if
you’ve been willing to go along with the movie’s more outlandish ideas for as
long as it takes to get there.
But for the
most part, Vigalondo skillfully navigates some tricky tonal shifts and
demonstrates an admirable willingness to explore some of the darker edges raised
by his film’s conceit. It helps that the film is also frequently very, very
funny while it does so. He tackles some serious issues with an absurdist
point-of-view, and somewhat inexplicably, it all works.
Although
she’s often saddled with a squeaky-clean onscreen image, Hathaway has
demonstrated on more than one occasion that she excels at playing troubled
trainwrecks, and at times “Colossal” plays like “Rachel Getting Married” with
kaiju. She makes us like Gloria, even as we recognize how thoughtlessly she
moves through life, blissfully unaware of the destruction she leaves in her
wake.
In an
equally terrific performance, Sudeikis upends his familiar persona as the
affable, somewhat smarmy, but basically decent guy. I’ve seen complaints about
the logic behind the general arc his character takes, but I had no trouble
buying it. I’ve encountered plenty of men like him, who present the outward
appearance of the mild-mannered nice guy, but underneath aren’t entirely what
they appear to be.
Through
these two characters, “Colossal” becomes a surprisingly nuanced exploration of
addiction, personal accountability, and rage — of both the female and decidedly
male variety. Plus, you know, giant monsters. Oscar and Gloria are in many ways
flip sides of the same coin, stumbling down separate paths but headed toward
the same destructive end. Continuing on will mean deciding how much collateral
damage they’re willing to endure in the pursuit of what they want. Providing
emotional depth wrapped in a deliriously entertaining package, “Colossal” is
bound to linger with anyone who struggles to tame the beast within.
This article appears in Apr 26 – May 2, 2017.
