Written and directed by Nacho Vigalondo

Starring Anne Hathaway, Jason Sudeikis, Tim Blake Nelson

Had you told me anytime before I saw Colossal that I would be liking a low budget monster movie starring Anne Hathaway I’d have been skeptical to say the least. This movie came out of nowhere. I’ve always been indifferent to Hathaway as an actress, but in this film I LOVED her. I just wanted to give her a hug when the credits rolled. I saw the movie on Friday and I’ve since been unable to get one question off my mind: Why do people hate her so much?

It seems a lot of the hate Hathaway gets is from women. There’s no doubt in my mind that there are guys that hate her too, but in my experience, of all the people I have talked to about movies with since her career began, it’s been the women I’ve spoken to who show the most vitriol. Now I’ve met women that love her too, but I bring this up because I find it strange. Up until recently I had never heard a dude say “I hate Anne Hathaway” or “I don’t like her”, some iteration of those statements. Yesterday I finally did hear it from a male friend when I brought up this whole discussion. But aside from that, when talking to women about Anne Hathaway I inevitably hear things like, “I’m tired of looking at her face”, “I don’t like her face”, “I don’t like her for any real reason.” This is just what I’ve personally heard and seen, you could maybe know all guys that hate her or something. I dunno, I can only speak to what I’ve encountered. I bring it up not to make a point, but rather to try and understand.

We so rarely have the ability to control how the public perceives us. You only have so much sway over your image. At a certain point it’s entirely in the public’s grasp. This is when I truly feel sorry for filmmakers and actors. Once you make a movie, your intention hardly matters anymore, it’ll only be perceived how people want to perceive it. Actors too, can give great performances, and have them totally destroyed by incompetent directors and editors *coughtomhoopercough*. I couldn’t have that career, I couldn’t be someone who pours their heart and soul into their craft and have the outcome totally deferred to other people’s discretion, regardless if I agreed with their decisions or not. It’s for that reason I specifically don’t go after actors when talking about films. Sometimes it’s obvious people can’t act, but as the old saying goes “actors are better than their work”. It’s so painfully true. They just need the right roles. Look at Hathaway. I never really took her seriously. She was always just “there” to me. In Les Mis, in Interstellar, even as Catwoman, in all the movies I’ve seen with her, and it took a $15 million American Kaiju movie where she gets a monster in South Korea to dance provocatively for me to notice her. What the unbelievable fuck.

A quick google of “why do people hate Anne Hathaway” and you will find dozens, DOZENS of articles with the same headline, some even specifically called “Why do women hate Anne Hathaway” or “Why is Anne Hathaway the most hated star in Hollywood?”. This is spooky. And now I’ve spent hours reading through these things and the commentary is just depressing.

“It’s like they took all the things that people find annoying and put them in one person.”
“Anne Hathaway reminds me of that kid in school all the other kids didn’t really like but all the teachers loved.”

“She makes everything all about her, even when trying to come off as sweet and humble.” Many view her as too “actorly” and overly dramatic. She is the needy, annoying “theatre kid” who has been told she’s America’s sweetheart and believes it.”

“She’s got this theater kid thing where she adopts the mood of every situation she’s in—rude and bawdy on Chelsea Lately, poised and ‘classy’ at the Oscars, etc.—but wildly overcompensates every time,” Richard Lawson explained to Hollywood.com. “She always seems like she’s performing, and her favorite act is this overstated humility and graciousness. I’ve known theater kids my whole life. I was a theater kid my whole life. She is the epitome of the bad kind of theater kid.”

God DAMN. This is some real shit. Even Howard Stern commented on her: “Let me sum up why people hate Anne Hathaway. First of all she gets a speechwriter to write her speech (for her Oscar win). She’s overly dramatic at these awards shows. She’s always out of breath. She’s even acting when she’s winning an award.”

So, uh, that’s a guy that said that so maybe I’m completely wrong and men hate her just as much. But really, what Stern said might just be it. Sure seems to be that people think she has a fake persona where no one really believes her in anything. It’s like she was immediately typecast once she became known in The Princess Diaries as some sweet, innocent, not gonna cause trouble young girl forever. But she did just that, she caused trouble. As she transitioned to more serious work in Brokeback Mountain she continued doing films geared towards a younger female demographic like Ella Enchanted. And then was in some big blockbusters like The Devil Wears Prada, which also starred Emily Blunt, and that was the movie that put Blunt on the map. Funny how she has a much better public image than Hathaway. She’s seen as a badass strong leading lady especially after roles like Edge of Tomorrow and Sicario. And now she’s about to be Mary fucking Poppins. The two of them seemed like good friends doing promotions for their film, but Emily Blunt is well liked, maybe even well loved, and Hathaway is polarizing to the very extreme to say the very least.

She’s bounced back and forth between big Hollywood movies like Alice in Wonderland and super small flicks like Rachel Getting married. She’s everywhere. But maybe that is just it. Maybe it was because her start was in appealing to that younger female demographic. Maybe that’s why a lot of women don’t like her. Because she fit in a certain role when they were young and the target audience for it, and as they grew up they didn’t like to see her in anything else. It could also explain maybe why a lot of men don’t take her seriously either. That starting image of her in The Princess Diaries was just too strong. She couldn’t break the chains of the public’s comforts with her. She wasn’t allowed to grow up. It would be like working as a waiter yet still getting laughed at when you ascend to CEO. People just can’t see you without the apron on.

Here’s an article by a woman explaining why she thinks women hate Hathaway but love Jennifer Lawrence, written right after the Oscars in early 2013 when she won best supporting actress for Les Mis:

http://nymag.com/…/why-do-women-hate-hathaway-but-love-lawr…

She writes comparing Anne and J-Law:
“The biggest difference between them is their interview and red-carpet persona. Hathaway doesn’t have the same down-to-earth delivery. She’s charming, but not funny. Meanwhile Lawrence manages to exude a best-friend vibe even at a behind-the-curtain Oscar press conference. Anyone who’s frozen up in front of the camera or in front of a crowd knows how hard it is to play a version of yourself and seem “natural” with all eyes on you. That Hathaway struggles with this should make her more relatable to us. Yet “I watch her in outtakes, and I feel like she’s not a real person,” writes a blogger at Crushable.”

OKAY. So a lot of it is from her offscreen personality, heh, I mean her real life personality. Maybe it’s just how she comes across in interviews and talking about her roles and stuff. I can’t speak to it, I haven’t seen her in many interviews at all. Who knows, someone’s gonna have to explain this all to me better cause the not knowing for certain is driving me insane.

But here I’ve gone on another big tangent and not said anything about Colossal. So I think I better say something about it. I went on about Anne’s image because it’s important, it plays into how her films are received. Watching Colossal was the very first time I have shifted from total indifference to genuine appreciation of Anne Hathaway. She didn’t strike me as trying too hard to please or oscar baity. She was just Gloria, an alcoholic mess who doesn’t have her life together. After she gets dumped and kicked out by her boyfriend who’s sick of her (played by Dan Stevens/British PewDiepie), Gloria’s forced to move back home. She runs into an old friend from her childhood, played by Jason Sudeikis. He offers to help and gives her a job at the local bar, which he owns. And so Gloria becomes a waitress. She has a nervous twitch, is forward with the men she wants, drinks way too much, and sleeps all the time. Doesn’t sound too interesting so far, does it. Did I mention there’s a monster? To further discuss it might spoil a lot of the movie’s fun, and so I’ll withhold plot details for another time.

Now while there is a monster in this movie, it isn’t really a monster movie. The film comments a lot about addiction, social media, and bad friendships, all the while having a major theme of envy running through it. Or, it wants to comment more on these things, but the film puts a lot of these conversations it brings up on hold at around the halfway mark. And this is where I have to regretfully tell you that this movie has some major problems, and you will notice them exactly when I did. There’s a scene in particular that doesn’t quite work, and by extension another, that have to do with a certain character’s turning point. The shift in this character’s dynamic is jarring and awkward, and will confuse the entire audience simultaneously. It’s the sort of moment where we all collectively respond by looking at each other and saying “What”. The motivations of this character and their sudden change sorta become apparent later, but that doesn’t excuse how the movie takes this person from A to C while completely skipping the B. It almost feels like there’s a scene missing to explain this sudden change. The motivations don’t exactly give them the push for what happens and what they do. Which wouldn’t be so bad but then the entire second half of the film is devoted to this strange direction and the movie focuses on it rather than the interesting themes it had so brilliantly set up. Oh well.

Ultimately the film is not great because of this, but that first half though, wow. I’ve never seen Hathaway like this. Drunk and silly and vulnerable. And flirty when she wants to be, and funny when she can be. Just look at how she reacts to the discovery of the monster, and what connection she may have with it. Look at the scene where she dances briefly to show her friends her discovery. Look at how much fun she’s having, she’s effortless.

I also couldn’t help but notice the wardrobe of Gloria. Whoever picked out her outfits is some kind of genius. Everything she wears just seems…perfect. I couldn’t tell you why, I don’t know shit about clothes. But it struck me as exactly how someone like Gloria would dress, I dunno, it just made me smile. And she wears her green Parka at all the right times. Now I ask you, is it the failure or success of the wardrobe department that I took this notice? You tell me.

All these little quirks and details just add so much richness to the character. Even the little tattoos on her fingers just seem right. And her connection to the monster is wonderful. And the opening sequence with her and her boyfriend is so simple yet so great. I love her in this movie, even with it’s major decline in the second half. I’m convinced now like I was never before that Hathaway is a movie star. I have no idea why I never ever took notice of her before. I’ve seen her in a lot of things but I’ve usually ignored her. I can’t speak to the haters but on behalf of the indifferent movie going public I would like to apologize to you Anne. I always took your presence for granted, and maybe we all did. You were the only slightly redeemable quality in the disaster Les Mis. Everywhere I’d go people would mask their opinions on it, “it was ok….I guess.” “I liked it….I think. I don’t know, Anne Hathaway’s scene tho!”. “Meh, it was alright, but Anne Hathaway’s scene!”. You were the guise people would use to hide their disappointment of that piece of shit. Think about that Anne, you were so good in people’s minds you shifted their opinions of one of the worst musicals ever to fairly positive. That’s how good you were.

It’s no secret that there’s nothing I hate more than squandered potential, and Les Mis is one of those perfect examples of that. Because Hol-e-shit. A movie that could have brought back a genre that most people don’t gravitate towards and it did the opposite. Long since has the musical soured in the minds of a lot of movie goers. I think the last good one I remember seeing was Chicago. But Les Mis is so bad, it’s the exact kind of movie people who say “I hate musicals” are referring to. It’s so bad, that by comparison La La Land is a masterpiece, and I think you all know how I feel about that movie. And everytime I see a movie that bad it makes me not want to do this anymore. Not want to talk or write or see films. Or get excited for seeing films. It drains you, makes you feel as though there is no hope in the world. But you were the hope in it Anne. You gave the movie everything you had, and still succeeded in the eyes of people everywhere despite an incompetent director DOING EVERYTHING IN HIS POWER TO RUIN YOU.

I’ll never forget when I saw Les Mis. I went with 8 friends, ranging from big movie buffs like myself, to big fans of the musical, to casual movie goers. They were ALL ready to love it. And people know I usually don’t speak during movies. Yet around the 2 hour mark, when Hugh Jackman is singing on his deathbed (you know, supposed to be one of the movie’s most emotional scenes), and I leaned over to one of my friends and said, “This is the longest movie I have ever seen.” Later after it ended and we all walked out I was livid. Raging, seething, shouting about the offensive excuse for a movie I just saw. Usually I have at least one friend challenge me on my strong opinions when I get angry about bad movies. Not this time. All 8 of them had their eyes half open, barely able to walk, the look people have when they’ve endured something they don’t want to and pretend they weren’t sleeping through it (you know the one). It’s the same look everyone gives after seeing a movie they hate. They won’t openly say they hate it yet, but deep down that’s what they’re thinking. Yeah, all 8 of them were silent. Speechless. None of them challenged me on my rage….except to say, “Anne Hathaway’s scene though.”

I want you to think about that. People are mostly at their highest favor of a film immediately upon it ending and walking out. When you get hardcore fans of the musical who were by default gonna give the movie a 10/10 to come out speechless you know you fucked up.

But whoa, I gotta stop now or I’ll keep going on tangents. Back to the point. Anne Hathaway. SHE is THE reason to see this movie. This is one of those films where the set up and first act are so good and fun, and then the subsequent direction and later acts of the film are questionable. Still decent, but so strange and not quite right for the movie I don’t think. But the writing is usually funny and the visuals are a ton of fun too. And this is a rare, original film with a small budget and big ideas featuring a monster. But always I have to keep talking about Anne. I have to stress she has never done it for me before, she hasn’t been a thorn in my side either, but here at last watching her was so entertaining and great. She was perfect for this movie, even if the movie wasn’t perfect for her.