Never has the acronym WTF been more appropriate. To paraphrase a lyric from The Human League’s sole UK number one single Don’t You Want Me, Gloria (Anne Hathaway) was working as a waitress in a jock/male bar when the rekindling of an old spat with her childhood friend-turned-boss Oscar (Jason Sudeikis) led to mass hysteria in Seoul where their slapstick violence was mysteriously mirrored by a tussle between a Godzilla-like monster and an equally colossal robot. One presumes writer and director Nacho Vigalondo is fond of a spliff or a whiff thereof.

Having been unemployed for over a year and turned to drink to fill the void, the far from glorious Gloria is asked to pack her things and vacate the New York apartment of her boyfriend Tim Nice But Dim (Dan Stevens). “You’re a mess,” he chides her. “You’re out of control and I love you, but I cannot deal with you in that state.” Without a dime to her name, she relocates to her parents’ empty house in the suburbs where she is offered a job by Oscar and befriended by a couple of barflies in the shape of the fawning Joel (Austin Stowell) and his far out friend Garth (Tim Blake Nelson).

One morning, she awakens from a drunken slumber to news of a monster attack in South Korea. The same monster who 25 years earlier caused havoc at 8.05 one morning then, to use Macbeth’s description of the disappearing witches, “melted, as breath into the wind”. The same time and date when she and Oscar had an irrevocable tiff over an art project at school. The same time, some 25 years later, when the monster and a robot reappear. And to put the exclamation mark of a cherry on the WTF of a cake, the monster scratches its head in the same “monkey-like” fashion as Gloria.

It’s all a bit bonkers, but enjoyably so. And the five-strong cast play it with po-faced precision, particularly Jason Sudeikis who moves from good cop to bad cop with lightning speed. Sure, the verbal jousting could have been wittier and the physical sparring more cartoonish, but the Oscar-nominated writer and director Nacho Vigalondo (7:35 in the Morning) together with composer Bear McCreary (10 Cloverfield Lane) have fashioned a refreshing take on the monster genre which though not colossal in the laughter or dramatic departments is nonetheless a madcap crowd-pleaser.

Video courtesy of: New Trailer Buzz

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Peter Callaghan
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