Love, by air and by sea

“EAGLE VS. SHARK” sounds like a new addition to Animal Planet’s “Most Extreme” lineup. Or perhaps a championship wrestling match.

It’s neither. “Eagle vs. Shark” is a quirky romantic comedy from New Zealand about two misfit loners who fall in love. The film marks the feature debut of writer-director Taika Waititi, who received an Oscar nod for 2003’s “Two Cars, One Night,” a charming short film about two boys and a girl who meet in a parking lot waiting for their parents, who are in the local pub.

“Since this was my first feature, I wanted to do something quite small and intimate,” says Waititi, a former stand-up comic.

His girlfriend, Loren Horsley, and former comedy team buddy Jemaine Clement star in this quirky tale of Lily, a meek loner who works at a fast-food restaurant and has set her sights on Jarrod, a callous, self-absorbed loser.

Their romance blooms at a come-as-your-favorite animal party for which Lily dresses as a shark and Jarrod an eagle.

“There is some sort of strange, lonely, dangerous quality” about an eagle and a shark, Waititi says. “Also, they inhabit two completely different environments, and in real life they would never meet.”

Waititi says he shares a lot of Jarrod’s insecure and strange traits. “You have to write what you know.” Underneath the comedy, he says, “there’s an actual sadness. These people are ultimately quite depressed and sitting in their own sadness and inability to emotionally connect with other people.”

-- SUSAN KING