[7]
Try this bonkers story on for size: A woman with a drinking problem (Anne Hathaway) learns that whenever she enters a playground in Maine, a Godzilla-sized monster materializes in Seoul, South Korea, mimicking her movements and laying waste to the surrounding city. Just as she gets her drinking under control and decides never to enter the playground again, her booze partner and romantic interest (Jason Sudeikis) discovers he, too, shares her baffling power, manifesting in a giant robot on the other side of the planet. As their relationship becomes fraught and violent, the monster and robot duke it out in Seoul and on TV sets around the world.
Colossal, written and directed by Nacho Vigalondo, never fully explains itself and plays a little willy-nilly with physics, but if you run with the idea, the story unfolds in surprising ways and gives a chance for Hathaway and Sudeikis to deliver fantastic, layered performances. At first, I mistook this for a simple story, and was concerned the film reveals too much too early, leaving itself with nowhere to go. But then I realized this is more than a Twilight Zone episode stretched into a feature film. It’s a story about domestic abuse and the fine line between love and control. It also has a nice ‘hang out’ quality, with Hathaway and her new friends spending dusk til dawn together in a cozy, closed bar. I’m not sure Vigalondo succeeds in connecting alcoholism to mass murder-by-proxy, but I like that Colossal gives us a lot to think about.
With Austin Stowell, Tim Blake Nelson, and Dan Stevens.