COLOSSAL

US, 2016, 110 minutes, Colour.
Anne Hathaway, Jason Sudeikis, Dan Stevens, Tim Blake Nelson, Austin Stowell.
Directed by Nacho Vigalondo.

Early in Colossal, Anne Hathaway’s character, Gloria, scratches the top of her head, stating that she has a persistent itch. Perhaps scratching the head is a suitable symbol for responding to Colossal. It can be quite puzzling.

The puzzle begins immediately when a little Asian girl searching for a doll in the park suddenly experiences a giant monster (perhaps a cousin of Godzilla!). The film in indicates: 25 years later.

The title of Colossal also appears, ironically, in very small type.

Gloria is arriving home, her boyfriend (Dan Stevens) questioning her about where she has been. She lies. She has been drinking with friends, hangover, sleeping it off. And his response in concern for her wayward life year and her not being able to find a job is to oust her from the apartment, his having packed her bags. She goes back to her family home in the town of Mainhead. (Nothing about the monster so far.)

She goes to an empty family home and buys an inflatable mattress, encountering a school friend, Oscar (Jason Sudeikis) who invites her to his bar. She likes what he is done in renewing the bar but prefers the back area and its atmosphere which he has not been able to renew. In the bar are two of his friends, Garth (Tim Blake Nelson) and Joel (Austin Stowell). They talk, they drink, and Gloria wakes up on a park bench with a hangover – and concerned calls from her boyfriend.

Oscar keeps giving her furniture, a television set – on which she sees that a monster is on the loose in Seoul, Korea, trampling the inhabitants, everybody fleeing in fear.

And this is where even more intense scratching the itch on the head (on the part of the audience, that is) becomes more aggravating.

If you take the film at realism value, it seems pretty absurd. If you take the film at symbolic value, then it becomes something of a psychological case, a friend referring to it as “Monsters from the Id�. Then there is the question of whether the monsters (on the rampage in Korea) are projections from Gloria’s Id and from Oscars as well because, confronting the monster, is a giant monstrous robot. What we are dealing with is not rational logic but image and symbolic logic. Not rational logic but emotional logic. The monsters are what T.S.Elliott might have called “objective correlatives�.

What Gloria discovers is that actions she does on a playground in Mainhead, are mimicked by the monster in Seoul (which everyone watches on television) – and the same for Oscar and the robot.

Things go downhill for the friends, animosity arising, jealousy and resentment, physical confrontations and slaps, all reproduced by the fighting monsters in Seoul.

What is Gloria to do? Go home with her boyfriend? Or, rather, go to Seoul and resolve the situation – not quite in the way expected.

As may be seen from this review, this is a realist/surrealist fable, both comic and serious, which may become a cult film for Psychology Conferences – but not at the multiplexers.

1. The title, expectations? Theme? Irony? The small title at the beginning?

2. The story as real, New York City, Gloria and Tim, the apartment, being ousted? The trip to Maidenhead, the town, homes, the bar, the playground? The contrast with the city of Seoul, the high-rise, the streets, the attacks? The musical score?

3. The prologue, the little girl searching for her doll? The sudden appearance of the monster?

4. The film as fantasy, narrative, the characters, behaviour? Seoul, the monsters? Conflict and consequences? The importance of the playground as well as television?

5. A film of Monsters from the Id? The drama of the subconscious and unconscious of Gloria and Oscar?

6. The origins of the rivalry, the children playing together, his skill in storytelling, the clash about the toys?

7. Anne Hathaway as Gloria, her life, not having a job, in love with Tim, her drinking, sleeping, telling lies, hangovers, the shock of her being ousted? The return home, the empty house, starting again? The meeting with Oscar, the memories, the death of his parents? Giving her the lift, the countryside, the bar, the renovation, the old section which Gloria liked? Meeting Garth and Joel, the discussions, confrontation? Her drinking, the nights, waking up and the hangovers, the aftermath? Tim and his calls and concern? Oscar, the many gifts for the house? Her buying the inflatable mattress? The gift of the TV, the city, the range of furniture?

8. Oscar in himself, his life, self-image, living in the town, the bar, memory of his parents, friends and talking at the bar, the past with Gloria?

9. Gloria, the attraction to Joel, Oscar’s jealousy, the night together? Garth, the secrecy of his drugs, Oscar attacking and exposing him?

10. Seoul, the vast monster, Gloria at the playground, realising that her actions were the monster’s actions? children passing by to school, the early morning sessions? Oscar and his being the robot? Garth and Joel and their watching the television? Korea, peace, crises? Gloria and Oscar, beginning to feud, Oscar’s jealousy, his firing Gloria? The slaps? And repeated on the television with the creatures?

11. Tim, arrival, Gloria agreeing to leave, her not leaving?

12. The build-up, Gloria and her kid, and knowledge of herself, acknowledging herself? To Korea, her look, half dead?

13. The fights between the monster and the robot, the people and their fears, running, deaths? The monster appearing in Mainhead, and conquering Oscar?

14. The end, telling to the story to the woman in the bar – and Gloria’s reaction to being offered a drink?

15. How well did the film work as narrative, as comic, satire, as psychological drama?