'Eagle vs. Shark': Revenge of the New Zealand nerds

The scruffy microbudgeted film pairs two lovelorn geeks in an unlikely romantic comedy about 'little people' finding love.

from the June 15, 2007 edition

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The quirky, microbudgeted romantic comedy is making a comeback, at least from overseas. "Once," from Ireland, turned out to be a crowd favorite and now, from New Zealand, we have "Eagle vs. Shark."

The first feature of actor and stand-up comic Taika Waititi – he previously made an Oscar-nominated short – "Eagle vs. Shark" was developed at the Sundance Institute, a nonprofit organization founded by Robert Redford that helps aspiring artists develop their craft. For better and worse, it has many of the Sundance hallmarks. It's scruffy and winsome and bit too eager to please – like a cute puppy that won't let you alone.

Lily (Loren Horsley) is a waitress who secretly harbors a yen for one of her customers, Jarrod (Jemaine Clement), a video-game clerk who barely acknowledges her. Jarrod is 10 years out of high school and has been plotting his revenge against the school bully ever since. Although he has bulked up with martial arts since then, Jarrod's inner geek is still very much on view.

He organizes a "dress as your favorite animal" party and shows up as an eagle. Lily comes as a rather pathetic looking shark. Obviously these two were meant for each other – they even share an identical-looking birthmark – although Lily almost blows it at the party by proving to be the better video-game player.

Their fling, such as it is, is a comedy of cluelessness. Lily is such a die-hard romantic that she can't see Jarrod's faults; he is so obsessed with his pending payback to the bully that she barely registers with him. When Jarrod hears that the bully has returned to their hometown, he makes plans to return and force a showdown.

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