Tuesday, May 2, 2017

Uneven "Colossal" a showcase for Hathaway




The dark comedy Colossal, featuring Anne Hathaway as Gloria, a woman who unknowingly destroys most of South Korea as a giant lizard-like monster, is too clever by... half.  Illustrating how one's low self-worth can translate into a Dr. Strangelove-esque mass scale death toll - and all this at the expense of "comedy", so to speak - director Nacho Vigalondo's satirical tone really turns into a weird, kind of disturbing psycho jealous-admirer showcase when Oscar (Jason Sudeikis), Gloria's childhood friend, does a complete 180 on his initially kind-and-considerate persona, and unapolagetically begins to crush Seoul himself (as a giant robot).

Hathaway looks and sounds the part of a lethargic woman who's just too irresponsible and flaky to keep a man (Dan Stevens) who clearly cares for her, and that indifference somehow manifests itself in a type of a small scale apocalypse half a world away.  Colossal is clearly meant to be a satirical farce, but as such, it is unfortunately very short on real laughs.  Vigalondo has shown that he has the guts and the audacity to push the envelope when it comes to content.  Now, if he could only muster a worthwhile idea to go along with such audaciousness.
C

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