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A terminally ill writer – Louis (Ulliel) – returns to his tempestuous family home to announce his impending death to his family. He hasn’t been home for 12 years, so needless to say, Louis finds it difficult to get the words out.

His mother Martine (Baye) is chirpy and excited; his older brother Antoine (Cassel) challenges everything everyone says; and his younger sister Suzanne (Léa Seydoux) is curious to learn more about this brother she never really knew. And then there’s Antoine’s eerily patient wife Catherine (Cotillard), who quietly observes everything until she understands what Louis is struggling to tell everyone, long before he can say it out loud.

Xavier Dolan’s divisive winner of the Grand Prix jury prize at Cannes – and recipient of a boatload of French and Canadian awards – It’s Only the End of the World comes with suspense built in. It maintains an almost unbearable level of tension throughout its 99-minute running time, as an A-list cast of French actors tear into each other over long-simmering family conflicts. This is one of those dysfunctional family angst-fests that one finds either powerfully cathartic or nigh-well intolerable. Which category will you fall into?

Gloria (Hathaway) is an out-of-work alcoholic who, after getting kicked out of her apartment by her boyfriend (Stevens), is forced to leave her life in New York and move back to her small hometown. When news reports surface that a giant creature is destroying Seoul, Gloria gradually comes to the realisation that she is somehow connected to his far-off phenomenon.

With the current climate of remakes and sequels, Colossal is a welcome change that should be praised for its originality: it’s part comedy, part drama, part sci-fi, and part plain weird.

Being so used to predictable plots I was pleasantly surprised (and also a little disturbed) by the twists and turns of the film as it moved away from the path I was expecting. Both Hathaway and Sudeikis play against type: Hathaway as the anti-princess with very few redeeming qualities, and Sudeikis going from affable good guy to something darker. Just like the characters on the poster, you may be left scratching your head about what you have just seen, and will be up for plenty of discussion about what it all means.