Eagle Vs. Shark (2007) Movie Information:

Eagle Vs. Shark (2007) Directed by: Taika Waititi Eagle Vs. Shark (2007) Written by: Taika Waititi Eagle Vs. Shark (2007) Cast: Jemaine Clement, Craig Hall, Loren Horsley, Rachel House, Brian Sergent, Joel Tobeck, Jackie van Beek

Eagle Vs. Shark (2007) U.S. Distributor: Miramax Eagle Vs. Shark (2007) U.K. Distributor: Optimum Releasing

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Eagle Vs. Shark (2007) Synopsis:

The tale of two socially awkward misfits and the strange ways they try to find love.

Eagle Vs. Shark (2007) Movie Review:

Like Napoleon Dynamite, this Kiwi comedy pokes fun at the quirkiness of ordinary people. But unlike that film, this story has a real heart and soul. And it's also thoroughly hilarious.

Lily (Horsley) is too offbeat for her fast-food coworkers, so they conspire to sack her. Meanwhile, she's fallen for a customer, Jarrod (Clement), because he has the same mole on his upper lip that she has. They finally connect at a party dressed as their favourite animals (she's a shark, he's an eagle), battling it out on a violent videogame. There's a spark between them, and soon she's travelling to his hometown to help him get revenge against his high school nemesis. Jarrod is clearly a loser nerd, but that doesn't matter to Lily.

Waititi writes and directs with a colourful vigour that catches the absurd humour in every situation, along with the inner workings of the characters. Where Napoleon Dynamite took a point-and-laugh approach, this film uses a genuinely witty script and performances that have a warm undercurrent. The deadpan approach is absolutely hysterical; there's barely a moment when we're not laughing. And the tone is augmented by some clever stop-motion animation that, alas, turns a bit too sentimental for its own good.

With their straight-faced performances, Horsley and Clement cleverly maintain the dignity of their embarrassing loser-slacker characters. Lily's optimism and untapped talents are sharply contrasted against Jarrod's self-deluded bluster and misguided sense of justice. Both are battling against their inner demons in extremely oddball ways that are funny, sad and profoundly engaging. And the characters around them are just as intriguing--wacky and real at the same time.

The genius of this film is the way it keeps us laughing at the eccentricities while also challenging us to find a positive way to move forward with our lives. The film's message is about finding what Lily calls the "lovely bits" in the messy world around us, rather than merely finding someone to blame for our problems. This emerges naturally, without ever being preachy. And in the end, the film's bittersweet charm and scruffy goofiness win us over completely.

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Eagle Vs. Shark (2007) review written by: Rich Cline