CS Weekly Archive > Weekend Read > 06/15/07

The Hunt for True Love

By ginny defrank

Eagle vs. Shark

Taika Waititi (also directed)

Acclaimed New Zealand writer-director Taika Waititi's (Two Cars, One Night) debut feature Eagle vs. Shark unfolds the quirky courtship of Lily (Loren Horsely), a hopeless romantic who endures coworkers' animosity, and cocky Jarrod (Jemaine Clement), a regular customer at the fast-food restaurant where Lily works. When opportunity arises for Lily to seize her dream beau, she moves like a shark to blood, setting in motion a romance as awkward as it is resilient as she travels a rocky path through Jarrod's family and beyond his past. Waititi succeeds with his well-crafted failures, having a deft touch characterizing compelling misfits. Lily is as pure-of-heart as her name suggests, drawing viewers in with her absolute ambition. The scenes of Lily and her brother Damon (Joel Tobeck) sharing simple moments of acute self-awareness and acceptance of one another are the strongest in the film, and demonstrate its central theme that everyone hunts for another to understand and love them as they are. (A well-placed series of animated sequences also echoes this idea in an original and delightful way.) Though the film is not perfect, having a few predictable plot points and characters a bit too reminiscent of other filmic underdogs, Eagle vs. Shark achieves Kiwi-kitsch in a likeable, if clunky, way.

Eagle vs. Shark
Miramax Pictures
Rated R; 87 min.

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Ginny DeFrank is a writer living in Los Angeles. An ACC basketball enthusiast, she is currently involved in several hair-brained schemes and uninteresting subplots.

Eagle vs. Shark courtesy Miramax Pictures

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