Colossal * (2016, Anne Hathaway, Jason Sudeikis, Austin Stowell, Dan Stevens, Tim Blake Nelson) – Movie Review

Anne Hathaway stars as the hard-drinking, out-of-work writer Gloria, who is dumped and kicked out of his apartment by her unsympathetic English boyfriend Tim (Dan Stevens), who has had enough of her drinking and forgetfulness. We are supposed to despise him for this, and despise him even more when he changes his mind.

So poor Gloria leaves her life in New York and moves back to her empty family home in her home town, buys an inflatable bed, and meets up again with her childhood buddy Oscar (Jason Sudeikis), who offers her the job of waitress at his family’s bar, also employing other supposedly loveable layabouts like Joel (Austin Stowell) and Garth (Tim Blake Nelson).

Gloria fits in exactly with the supposedly loveable layabouts, so you would think she could be happy. Joel is weirdly passive and dull, while Garth gets by taking drugs and telling inane stories. Oscar, the brightest bulb in a dim box, still burns with a now re-ignited flame for Gloria, and tries to help her.

Gloria eagerly accepts his gifts of futon sofa, massive TV, and twee family furniture but that is all she seems to regard Oscar for, not seeing this could be true love. But she is self-sabotaging and self-destructing, and instead has a quick fling with the handsome Joel instead, understandably angering his love-struck boss Oscar.

Then the film goes all weird on you. Gloria sees on TV that a monster is destroying Seoul, South Korea, and somehow it is connected to her. A giant robot also appears, somehow connected to Oscar. The two fight in small-town America, and the monsters fight in Seoul.

The horribly obvious metaphor apart, the monster stuff seems pointless and irritating, and it could cut easily from the film entirely. But that would just leave the small and irritating love story of the characters and that isn’t much.

Alternatively we could just have had a fun monster movie, but serious-minded writer-director Nacho Vigalondo isn’t in the market for selling fun. The problem is his idea of serious isn’t really serious enough, and the drama would kind of need Ingmar Bergman to make it work. Sudeikis manages to extend his usual cheery range to create quite an unpleasant character, but who’d want to spend time with him, let alone a lifetime?

Gloria is supposed to have a demon drink problem, but Hathaway never once suggests a woman on the verge of alcohol, self-destruction, lonely, spinsterish middle-age. She’s a good actress in the right role, but she’s not a good fit here. Gloria seems a lightweight both as a person and as a drinker. Her drink of choice is definitely Miller Lite.

Is the movie meant to be an update of The Lost Weekend or Days of Wine and Roses? It doesn’t really tell you. Playing a drink problem movie for laughs as a black comedy could be OK, but that is way out of Vigalondo’s reach and Hathaway’s comfort zone.

On Colossal’s side, it is different, but that is also different from great. None of the good actors manages to suggest why we should be interested in their annoying loser characters, and why we should spend time with them. Colossal ends up colossally boring.

It premiered at the Toronto Film Festival on 9 September 2016 and screened at the Sundance Film Festival on 20 January 2017. Reviews generally have been favourable. It has taken $3.2 million on a budget of $15 million.

Hathaway was pregnant while filming.

It was hit by a lawsuit by Japanese company Toho in May 2015, claiming it used Godzilla’s image and stills from Godzilla films in emails and releases sent to potential investors. A settlement was reached in October 2015, when shooting began in Vancouver, ending on 25 November 2015.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Movie Review

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