Eagle Vs. Shark
Directed by Taika Waititi
Starring Loren Horsley, Jemaine Clement
Miramax Home Video
Available Jan. 15, 2008

Before seeing Eagle vs. Shark, all I knew about the film was that it was an indie effort about a nerdy couple in the vein of Napoleon Dynamite. I assumed the tagline “Luckily, Love Is Blind” meant that this unattractive pair was lucky to have even snagged each other. I figured the film would address the “beauty is only skin deep” concept and how a person can be attractive on the inside.

My assumptions were only partially correct. In an unexpected twist, Eagle vs. Shark also reveals that sometimes ugly is ugly on the inside as well. And when this seemingly “made for each other” couple get together, it’s far from nerdy bliss.

It’s almost noon, and Lily (Loren Horsley) is at her station behind the cash register of a fast-food joint, Meaty Love. Her coworkers treat her with scorn and disregard for no real reason other than that she’s quiet and awkward. Lily doesn’t react to this mistreatment, instead she anxiously watches the clock in anticipation. That’s when out of blurry focus comes the bespectacled Jarrod (Jemaine Clement), a video game store clerk who’s the object of Lily’s affection. Using her power to offer free fries, Lily attempts to woe Jarrod, who barely notices. Instead, he wants Lily to pass on to her sexy coworker an invite to his “dress as your favorite animal” party. When the coworker tosses the invite in the trash, Lily decides to go to the party herself.

At what has to be one of the nerdiest parties ever — highlights include chucking shoes at a guy in a helmet and a cheesy “Fight Man” video game competition — Lily finally manages to get Jarrod’s attention. Jarrod’s invites her into his bedroom to impress her with his large array of homemade crafts — a guitar with a fretboard made of emery boards, a wallet watch, and hideous-looking candles. It works and thus begins the tale of this likely pairing and the discoveries they make about each other and themselves.

Taika Waititi wrote and directed this New Zealand-made hilariously skewed romantic comedy, which doesn’t always rely on the cheap laugh or the embarrassing moment. Waititi goes for the Napoleon Dynamite retro-in-the-present style mainly in the set design, which has the characters sitting in front of outdated wallpaper and paintings. Since the film is not dialogue heavy and doesn’t have the characters explain everything, a lot about the characters is revealed by through the hideous trinkets, knickknacks, and homemade creations, along with trophies of various achievements, that are jam-packed into the scenery.

There are a few aspects of Waititi’s effort that differentiates it from other films in the “lovable geek” genre, most specifically that it deals with a man and a woman in their late twenties trying to maintain an adult relationship, as opposed to the usual teenaged boy dealing with the usual complications of adolescence. There’s no worrying about acne or the prom or getting laid, though there is plenty of arrested development.

While Lily’s low almost monotone speaking voice makes her come across as unenthusiastic and downtrodden, she’s actually optimistic and persevering. We learn to love Lily as we see her handle the juvenile antics of Jarrod and his life-long quest to enact vengeance on the Samoan guy who picked on him all through high school.

Another diversion from the lovable geek genre is the portrayal of Jarrod. It’s true that both Lily and Jarrod are social misfits, but we realize that Lily is more shy while Jarrod basically has a psychological disorder. After 10 minutes, it’s obvious he’s a classic psychology textbook case. He’s not your classic well-read, smart, detailed geek whose inward beauty surfaces the more you get to know him. He’s an emotionally crippled, over-confident, immature, selfish narcissist, and he’s physically unattractive. To know him is to loathe him. The film’s tagline clearly means that Jarrod is lucky that Lily is blind to his inner ugliness.

What Eagle vs. Shark does through humorous tension is explore whether people like Jarrod and Lily can ever change enough to progress beyond the tragedies that stunted their emotional growth.

DVD Bonus Features

The DVD bonus features includes a running audio commentary with Waititi (who also goes by Taika Cohen), who is sometimes joined by members of the cast. Cast members call in during certain parts of the film to add their thoughts, though Waititi is the only person actually watching the movie as he’s talking. A nice addition was Loren Horsley’s portion, as she talks about what it was like to play Lily.

What I didn’t realize while watching the film is that Waititi plays Gordon, Jarrod’s dead brother. We only see Gordon through the massive amounts of photos scattered throughout Jarrod’s family’s house and in old video footage Jarrod’s father laments over. Knowing this actually added a new layer of understanding to my viewing of the film, as did finding out that Waititi is Horsley’s real-life boyfriend and that the couple developed the story for Eagle vs. Shark together.

Also included on the DVD are Outtakes, which were not as funny as they were interesting. Since I’m unfamiliar with these New Zealand actors, it was nice to see them break character and have a laugh on set. There’s also six Deleted Scenes, which can be played with or without director commentary. Five of the six deleted scenes would have been a nice addition to the final version and are worth watching with and without the commentary. There’s one animated sequence that was deleted and while I can understand why it was created, it definitely didn’t didn’t fit at all with the vibe of the movie or match the typically quirky stop-motion animated sequences that do appear throughout the film.