Colossal

Spanish writer-director Nacho Vigalondo (Timecrimes; Open Windows) delivers this rom-com gimmick flick, a film that wins points for theoretical uniqueness and not much else. Colossal concerns a party-hardy screw-up named Gloria (Anne Hathaway), an out-of-work writer who returns to her childhood hometown following a breakup with her British boyfriend (Dan Stevens), only to find that her reappearance is connected to a series of giant monster and robot attacks in Seoul, South Korea. Fair enough, that’s a new one by me, Pacific Rim meets 13 Going on 30 and all that, but a thumbprint, pitch-room premise is hardly an excuse for all of Vigolando’s slack storytelling and trite symbolism (Gloria is an alcoholic, which makes her a monster, you see …). Still, Hathaway hasn’t been this likably liberated since Rachel Getting Married; with a lesser actress in the lead, this film is probably unbearable, but Hathaway somehow gets us to care. D.B.