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In cinemas now
A unique release from Spanish director Nacho Vigalondo (Extraterrestrial), Colossal captures audiences with an undeniably original concept, on a shoestring budget for a major release. Gloria, played by Anne Hathaway (Interstellar, The Dark Knight Rises), is an alcoholic suffering a breakup, who returns broke to her childhood home in small-town America. She strikes up a friendship with an old acquaintance, Oscar, played by a captivating Jason Sudeikis (Saturday Night Live). It all seems pretty innocuous so far, but things take a somewhat left-field turn: enter, what is effectively, the monster from Cloverfield flattening part of South Korea’s capital, Seoul. Without giving too much away, the audience discovers that Gloria and the monster share a lot in common, almost as if she’s pulling the monster’s strings.
Top marks for the unusual concept, but unfortunately this concept proves to be the film’s strongest talking point. Colossal fails to build on this strong foundation, the plot and dialogue tailing off into predictability half way through the film. In Vigalondo’s defence, he finds a way to use the plot to cover many different topics, including alcoholism, abusive relationships, self-entitlement and power and responsibility. Hathaway and Sudeikis deserve praise for their acting, the latter being wholly terrifying in one late scene involving a firework as the performance builds in tension and rage until it reaches a fiery conclusion. Meanwhile, Beauty and the Beast’s Dan Stevens is pushed to one side in a small support role as the protagonist’s boyfriend. The cinematography deserves a commendation, working with the relatively simple set design to form an impressively dark, mildly dystopian atmosphere which genuinely sucks in the viewer. The lack of huge amounts of CGI which have come to be expected from big releases provides a breath of fresh air, allowing the viewer to focus on the story without any pyrotechnic distractions.
Colossal isn’t without its faults, but considering its meagre $15 million budget compared to Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2’s $200 million, it punches well above its weight. In a period of high budget, low creativity Hollywood remakes, Colossal engrosses audiences with a wholly original concept, raising more questions than answers.
