Colossal (2016) [Blu-ray]
Action | Comedy | Drama | Fantasy | Sci-Fi

Tagline: All she could do was save the world

Colossal wrings a great deal of fun — and also some genuine terror, by no means all of it monster-related — from its blithely bizarre conceit. Made on a budget that would just about cover Kong’s left bicep, Colossal is cool, smart filmmaking, with plot developments that will be talked about for a long time to come. A woman finding her inner strength is inspiring. But a woman finding her inner giant monster who kicks butt — that’s just so cool

Storyline: Gloria (Anne Hathaway) is an out-of-work girl who, after getting kicked out of her apartment by her boyfriend, is forced to leave her life in New York and move back to her hometown. When news reports surface that a giant creature is destroying Seoul, South Korea, Gloria gradually comes to the realization that she is somehow connected to this far-off phenomenon. As events begin to spin out of control, Gloria must determine why her seemingly insignificant existence has such a colossal effect on the fate of the world.

Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Martin Liebman, July 29, 2017 What happens when Godzilla meets psychological scars and a little bit of fluke electricity? A movie just like Colossal. Director Nacho Vigalondo's (Open Windows) film about a pair of emotionally bruised and figuratively lost individuals is a metaphorical mash-up that's part monster movie and part gloomy character drama sprinkled with some dark humor for effect. It's a unique, thought-proving, and entertaining film, a standout in a cinema landscape that rarely brings those three qualities together, often sacrificing two for the sake of the third. Colossal has them in near-perfect balance. The movie is a rare treat in a world of big budget bombs and cookie cutter cinema.

Tim (Dan Stevens) has had it with Gloria (Anne Hathaway), his perpetually drunken and absentee girlfriend. He kicks her out of his New York apartment, leaving her with nowhere to go but to her old, quasi-abandoned childhood small-town home. No sooner does she arrive, she bumps into Oscar (Jason Sudeikis), a childhood friend who has taken over running a family-owned bar after his father's death. He offers her a job at the bar and helps her settle into the house with the occasional delivery of household essentials, like a television and a futon. Her return home coincides with a monster attack in Seoul, South Korea. The monster has attacked before, but it's been more than two decades since the last, ironically when Gloria still lived in town as a child. The monster appears, destroys, and disappears. It doesn't take long for Gloria to realize that she's somehow in control of the monster, that it appears only when she visits a particular spot -- a playground -- that's obviously a key to both the supernatural occurrences in Seoul and a secret connection between Gloria and the spot in question.

Colossal is very different, but it's also very good, together making for one of the year's best films. The film overflows with metaphorical points of interest, obvious ones but ones folded organically and smartly into the narrative. Battling inner demons, facing one's own giants, staring down the consequences of one's actions, taking responsibility, dealing with power, and understanding the dangers of detachment are all interwoven into the narrative. The film is a core psychological study, then, but one that, despite being a hair overlong and plodding in a few places, delivers a fantastic glimpse into the human psyche, how two lost individuals struggle with newfound realizations and how they allow their life directions to influence the world around them. That the consequences are so distant is the perfect compliment to the story, where one can often be blinded to the consequences of their actions. It's in how the characters respond and the courses of action -- physical and more importantly, emotional -- develop that give the story shape and meaning and offer a telling, and sometimes sobering, look at the human condition through a monstrous prism, one that can be both literal and figurative at the same time.

The film takes these complex issues and juxtapositions and makes them accessible and explorable. It's not above its audience and it's not below its audience. It engages the viewer with a story that's both relatable and entertaining. It has its fun with the narrative details but quickly engages into the darker sectors of the mind as the character qualities become more pronounced as the truth of what's happening becomes more clear. Nacho Vigalondo, who also wrote the film, finds a continuos harmony throughout, exploring the human condition with a keen insight into the best and worst of the characters and much of what lies in-between, all intermixed with a fun story of monster mayhem that generates nearly as many laughs as it fires neurons in the brain.

The cast makes the movie. Beyond the plot points, the monster mayhem, the light humor, and the scripted characterizations, the actors bring the movie to life with the depth and breadth the script demands. To a player, the cast finds the character centers and, by extension, the film's center, too, exploring the individual characteristics with involved determination that opens the narrative beyond its plot points. Sudeikis is the big winner, portraying the lost, drunken, and angry Oscar who evolves with the story and has his own big secret to share with the characters, and the audience, as the film moves along. While the character isn't particularly creative, there's no shortage of plot-complimentary depth. Sudeikis plays it very well, bringing life to a troubled character, as does Hathaway her own, who is more of a transitional key figure in the story. Both understand the complexities the story presents them, and even if their underlying life stories aren't particularly engaging, it's what the film does with them that makes it a winner.

Colossal is a fantastic film that's engaging from strange start to revelatory middle to satisfying end. It's wonderfully unique, deeply metaphorical, strongly acted, and finely directed, certainly one of the year's best films. Universal's Blu-ray is disappointingly devoid of extras (much like another wonderful film, Sleight, which releases on the same day) beyond a single deleted scene. Video and audio are just fine. Very highly recommended.

[CSW] -3.3- This is not a comedy. It's more of a psychological drama than a horror movie. In fact it is extremely dark with violence on women both physiological and some physical. It is however well-written and acted. It's not a monster movie in the typical sense of destruction and mayhem, though there are a couple of monsters (kaiju) in it. It is a dark relationship movie, with abuse toward women, and alcoholism becoming very apparent themes, all in the backdrop of the monster/kaiju story line. It's about the monsters within us. I thought it was different and well done but don't expect a light movie.
[V4.5-A4.5] MPEG-4 AVC - D-Box enhanced this movie.


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