Eagle Vs Shark

Napoleon Dynamite, Napoleon Dynamite, Napoleon Dynamite. If you've read even the smallest press clipping regarding Eagle Vs Shark, you will no doubt have come across comparisons between these two films. Eagle Vs Shark has been accused many times of brazenly lifting the quirky characterisation of said film and implanting into the mould of a more traditional rom-com. The point that seems to be frequently forgotten is that it works.

Yes, Eagle Vs Shark's two main geekish protagonists do bear a resemblance to Mr Dynamite, but here the viewpoint is supplied by the marginally more normal female character Lily (Loren Horsley), giving the film a genuinely different dynamic. She, a burger-flipper with a crush on the socially subnormal Jarrod (Jermaine Clement), is sacked and ends up tagging along on a road-trip where Jarrod intends to wreak vengeance on the man who bullied him as a child.

Although Jarrod's behaviour sometimes veers from that characteristic of his intrinsic uselessness into genuine nastiness, the film still manages to squeeze out some charming, affecting moments. In addition, Eagle Vs Shark is also touched by that particular desolation that has become almost an expected feature of those films that hail from Australia and New Zealand. Don't be put off by the press, give it a look before it disappears from our screens and make up your own mind.

Released 17th August 2007 by New Zealand Film Commission.

Written by Andrew Williams.