Colossal is not your typical creature feature – far from it, in fact. Yes, Nacho Vigalondo’s atypical drama features a monstrous, city-stomping Kaiju tearing its way through Seoul, and there are moments of genuine chaos peppered across today’s first trailer, but Vigalondo, best known for Timecrimes and Open Windows, is cooking up a very peculiar blend of spectacle and character drama here. You could almost say it’s a different beast altogether…and, yeah, we’ll see ourselves out.
But not before outlining what Colossal has in store. Vigalondo’s TIFF 2016 favorite places Anne Hathaway in the shoes of Gloria, a woman whose life begins to spiral out of control after losing both her job and her long-time boyfriend (Dan Stevens). Crestfallen, Gloria’s life is left in tatters, and Hathaway’s damaged protagonist soon decides to relocate to her hometown in a bid to get things back on track.
It’s here that she bumps into a childhood friend (Jason Sudeikis) and together, the pair begin to realize that Gloria is somehow able to pull the strings behind the gargantuan Kaiju currently wreaking havoc on the South Korea capital. Inexplicably, her imperfections and destructive ways have a direct influence on the creature, and Colossal then explores the strange, psychic bond between human and other.
It’s a premise that is both fiercely original and bat-shit insane, and our own Matt Donato believes Colossal is better of for it. In his TIFF review, he wrote that Vigalondo’s creature feature showcases Anne Hathaway like we’ve never seen her before, writing, “Colossal is a human drama with a monstrous roar, but not without Nacho’s signature brand of zaniness and a fantastic, broken turn by Hathaway.”
Also starring Beauty and the Beast‘s Dan Stevens and Tim Blake Nelson, Colossal will stomp into US theaters on April 7th.
