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How entertaining? ★★★☆☆
Thought provoking? ★☆☆☆☆ 15 August 2007
This article is a review of EAGLE VS SHARK. |
“I almost came as a shark, but I realised an eagle is better,” Jarrod (Jemaine Clement)
EAGLE VS SHARK belongs to the celebration-of-being-a-geek subgenre that has wormed its way into our hearts in recent times (CLERKS, MURIEL’S WEDDING, HIGH FIDELITY, AMERICAN PIE and upcoming SUPERBAD); but this film owes a large debt to NAPOLEON DYNAMITE: leading men have similar mannerisms and self-belief, with a mission that drives them (Vote for Pedro!), and a loveable dorky romance.
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Lily (Loren Horsley), quietly pretty and superficially fragile, works at Meaty Boy, a New Zealand fast food soul destroyer. Jarrod, wearer of great/rubbish fringe and outward in your face confidence, works at video game emporium Screenblaster. Lily has a huge crush on Jarrod, with the highlight of her day being his regular appearance at 12.01 pm for his lunch.
She manages to blag her way into his favourite-animal fancy-dress party. Lily is one type of male fantasy – cute, totally into a dork boy and good at computer games. They get together that night, but over the course of the film he manages to undo his good fortune. Jarrod is riddled with insecurity and is obsessed with confronting his old high school nemesis, Eric Elisi (David Fane), which when it inevitably happens is one of the joys of the film. Lily seems to be content in her own skin but is lonely, and has a Pollyanna-esque ability to reinvigorate Jarrod and his family.
This would have got an extra star had it not been for the feeling of forced indie-eccentricity (shell-suit wearing sister and brother-in-law of Jarrod attempting to hock their second-rate products, Lily’s brother the bad impressionist, Jarrod’s best mate who is even dweebier, Dad in a wheelchair but can walk, and animated apples representing the couple), and NAPOLEON DYNAMITE. The writing and direction from Taika Waititi suggest a talent to watch, and the music is aptly quirky from The Phoenix Foundation.
There are laugh out loud moments, but the denouement is mostly predictable, though this is still a cut above most romantic-comedies that hit our multiplexes.
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