Dir. Taika Cohen, New Zealand, 2007, 88 mins
Cast: Loren Horsley, Jemaine Clement, Joel Tobeck, Cohen Holloway
Review by Jean Lynch
What is is about life down under that continually manages to produced these low-budget, beautifully acted, quirky offbeat comedies?
Eagle Vs Shark is very much in the vein of Napoleon Dynamite, with two social misfits – Lily (Horsley), the guitar-playing, hoola-hoop swinging, ‘Meaty Boy’ burger bar waitress, and Jarrod, the bespectacled, video-game playing self-confessed nerd – getting it together after she gatecrashes his ‘come as your favourite animal’ party. She is the shark of the title – he the eagle. Though 'it could have been a cobra’ too.
Unlike Jon Heder’s Napoleon, Jarrod is actually a really creepy guy. He looks worryingly like David Walliams in character as Lou, although he thinks he looks more like Wolverine from X-Men. With all the social graces of a baboon, he woos Lily with small talk in the bedroom: ‘This is a plane I made ... watch wallet... this is where I make my candles’ followed by ‘do you want to kiss? On the lips? Do you want to have sex’, all of which Lily answers with a monosyllabic squeak ‘yup’.
They have a lot in common. Her parents are dead; so are are his mum and brother. But Jarrod has a lot of issues, particularly about the Samoan boy, Eric – his high school nemesis on whom he plots revenge. Eric has been away but Jarrod has just heard from his ‘contact’ that he’s coming back. Unable to return to his home town because he hasn’t got ‘wheels’, Lily persuades her film nut brother, the Terminator/James Bond quoting Damien (Tobeck) to give them a lift.
Immersed in the daily dynamics of Jarrod’s dysfuntional family, which also includes his shellsuit-clad sister Nancy (Rachel House) and her husband, and the siblings wheelchair bound father, the childlike Lily begins to discover more about her boyfriend than she’d bargained for. Like his daughter. And his deceased brother Gordon’s ex-fiancee, Tracey, to whom Jarrod seems exceptionally close.
In a tumultuous week, Lily will have her heart broken, but what is slowly revealed will clear the way for the couple to make a go of it if they want to - If they want to - and for the family to sweep away the ghosts of the past. Meanwhile, Jarrod has that old school bully to show what’s what so there’s still some surprises in store...
Loren Horsley is delightful as Lily. Quietly spoken with eyes like saucers in their wonderment, she seems to fight against her own innate reserve to go for what she wants in life. Although she delights in bouncing on a trampoline or playing children’s games in the car, it’s that very open-heartedness that endears her to Jarrod’s family. Jarrod, meanwhile, is a very complex character, with very few redeeming qualities. On finding out that school bully Eric isn’t quite what he’d believed him to be, there is a moment where Jarrod could have found redemption but instead the filmmakers go for the superficial option: the cheap laugh. It is very easy to visualise Jarrod as the lead character is another move: Bowling for Columbine, for instance.
However, the charm of the film is that it’s about these two misfits, and both the comedy and the sweetness of the film arise from their co-dependent relationship. Clement is already known here as one half of comedy duo ‘Flight of the Conchords’, so will be forgiven - loved even - for his style of humour. It could all have ended so horribly different but Eagle Vs Shark is wonderfully bitter sweet with some painfully funny moments, and a first-rate performance from it’s lead actress to boot.
Eagle Vs Shark is available to own on Region 2 DVD from Optimum Releasing.
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