Its not too often (unfortunately) that a gender-bending movie comes along the way to completely blow your mind (in a good way, mind you) and "Colossal" is definitely one of those rare gems.
You think you've had your share of "I know what this movie is about and how it will end" but that's not the case, at all for "Colossal". You can't put it in a bag or in a box, you can't define it but you can definitely talk about it and I love talking about movies. The interesting thing is, there are a lot of things to talk about in Nacho Vigalondo's "Colossal".
Gloria (Anne Hathaway) is a former online writer on a slump, as she struggles with alcohol and getting her life back together and her boyfriend, Tim (Dan Stevens) has just about enough of her and kicks her out of his apartment. With no home and no money, Gloria goes back home to her old hometown where things start to get weird and fast.
She meets her childhood friend Oscar (Jason Sudeikis) who offers her a job in his late father's bar (not exactly ideal for a supposed "recovering alcoholic" but hey its a job!). Gloria spends her days working her shifts at the bar and drinking with Oscar and his buddies until early in the morning. Gloria sleeps off her hangover in a children's park before going home, while Gloria is going through her own personal struggles a kaiju appears in Seoul, South Korea, with hundreds of people dying as the monster walks through the city, causing death and damage on its wake.
Gloria soon realizes that she is the Kaiju and it manifests whenever she walks through the playground at exactly 8:05 AM (US Time). After a night of drinking with Oscar and his buddies, Gloria reveals her secret to them, what happens next brings the story to a whole new level and what was once seemingly hilarious in a geeky way becomes real and terrifying-fast. (Yup. No Spoilers).
"Colossal" is more than girl becomes Kaiju (which is not a very common theme actually) as it also deals with that inner struggle that we all have with our own monsters. Now, our own internal monsters may not be running a mock in South Korea but they can do a lot of damage if we let them overcome us.
Anne Hathaway is brilliant in this film. Probably my favorite Hathaway film to date, there is a scene there where Gloria is beaten to the ground and just devastated and the way Hathaway delivers it, makes you believe it (yes, even if that means believing that she can manifest herself as a Kaiju on the other side of the world, she is that brilliant).
I really, really want to go deeper in the movie and talk about what happens but as this is a non-spoiler review, I will just go ahead and say that Jason Sudeikis is a chameleon in this film, you would think that if this was a typical romantic comedy, the two would get together and Gloria will get her life back and they would live happily ever after but that is the genius of "Colossal" as it presents itself to be one thing then turns around and becomes something else entirely! And this, makes it a much needed antidote to movie cliches & predictable plot. Its originality is so fresh! A must-see gender-bending film!
9/10 - "Colossal" will surely be part of my top ten films of the year (that's how much I liked it). Its #NowShowing - don't miss it!
