Eagle vs. Shark

Starring: Loren Horsley, Jemain Clement, Taika Cohen, Aarn Cortesi, Craig Hall, Chelsie Preston-Crayford

Written by: Taika Cohen

Directed by: Taika Cohen

Distributor: Miramax Films

Rated: R

Falling in love is rarely given credit for being as awkward as it is. Romantic love is almost always simplified and sanitized for the big screen. As contemporary cinema advances, audiences still have yet to see the long-awaited film that shows falling in love for the truly stilted, graceless way it usually plays out off screen. Eagle Vs. Shark is not that film. It’s really good, though. And the over-exaggerated awkwardness of its love story goes a long way toward apologizing for all those films that have made love look easy over the years.

Horsley plays Lily: an awkward woman far too old to be working a non-managerial position at a local fast food joint. She is overwhelmingly attracted to Jarrod (Jemaine Clement) who is far too old to be working a presumably non-managerial position at the local video game store. She is roundly ignored by the object of her attraction in spite of her best passive efforts to get him to notice her. When chance finds him being served by her at the fast food joint, he gives her an invitation to his upcoming party to give to an attractive co-worker. (People are encouraged to come to the party dressed up as their favorite animal.) Thinking of him as the awkward geek the rest of the world seems to see, the girl thoughtlessly discards Jarrod’s invitation, leaving Lily the opening she needs to show up at the party all by herself. At the party, Jarrod is an eagle, she a shark. When she wins a Mortal Kombat-style video game tournament at the party, he is persuaded to notice her and the two end up having a suitably awkward, albeit intimate evening together. Lily and Jarrod’s relationship progresses in a similarly fumbling manner. After an uncomfortable non-date at the nearest multiplex to see the latest Hugh Jackman film, he visits her at her place. The ensuing conversation results in Lily’s brother driving the couple on a road trip so that Jarrod can face his high school bully (high school now being some ten years in the past) and finally teach him a lesson.

This is an exquisitely sweet film, with all of that sweetness and the vast majority of its charm coming from Horsley. Lily’s unquenchable, unrequited love for Jarrod is made palpable almost exclusively by the vast populations of expressions that flutter across her face. Her struggle to pull an honest expression of affection out of Jarrod is paired with Jarrod’s ceaseless efforts to gain acceptance from his family through finally teaching his high school bully a lesson. In the absence of his family’s support, Jarrod slowly begins to find redemption in the unflinching love of Lily. The film’s only real difficulty is the fact that Jarrod has spent so much of the film almost completely ignoring Lily that his final, begrudging realization at film’s end doesn’t feel nearly as satisfying as it should be. VS