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What's good in 'Colossal' isn't very original

( R ) ( Monitor Movie Guide )

'Colossal' stars Anne Hathaway as a woman who is an alcoholic who goes to live in her family's old home. Jason Sudeikis co-stars in the movie, which seems like it is going to devolve into a romantic comedy but instead shifts into sci-fi mode.

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Cate Cameron/Neon/AP
Anne Hathaway appears in a scene from 'Colossal.'
  • By Peter Rainer Film critic

If Anne Hathaway was looking for a role to stretch herself, she certainly got it in “Colossal,” although the stretch exercise ultimately comes to naught. She plays Gloria, an alcoholic New Yorker who decamps to her family’s abandoned house in the boonies after her fed-up boyfriend (Dan Stevens) throws her out.

There she meets up with Oscar (Jason Sudeikis), a childhood friend now running a bar, where, of course, she becomes a regular. Just when you think the film, written and directed by Nacho Vigalondo, is going to devolve into yet another so-so bittersweet romantic comedy, it shifts into sci-fi mode, as live TV telecasts a giant Godzilla-style monster rampaging in the streets of Seoul, South Korea.

Let’s just say that there is a connection between the monster; a subsequent giant robot; and Gloria, Oscar, and a local sandbox. That may enough to pique your curiosity. It did mine, for a while, until it didn’t. To paraphrase what Brahms once told a young composer, what’s original in the film isn’t very good, and what’s good in it isn’t very original. Grade: C (Rated R for language.)

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