The Lobster – Review by Annika

Review: “The Lobster” (2015)

by Annika Schönwitz

“The Lobster” is one of those films whose premises sound so incredibly absurd that you can’t help but approach them with a good chunk of skepticism. A closer look, however, pays off:

Imagine a society yielded to an unemotional dystopia in which living without a partner is considered a crime. Singles that are exposed are given 45 days under supervision to find a mate, otherwise they will be transformed into an animal of their choice.
In this world we find David (Colin Farrell), a naïve newly single, whose mustache is giving off strong Theodore-vibes from Spike Jonze’s “Her”. Recently left by his wife for another man, David, accompanied by his brother-turned-dog, is taken to a hotel-like prison in the middle of the woods in order to start his 45 days of forced courtship. But how do you find a partner, if your relationship has to be largely based on a shared “defining characteristic” instead of, well, love? For David, the title-giving lobster in the making, this is all too much. Between the daily relationship propaganda by Olivia Coleman’s vicious hotel manager, the Dolores Umbridge of the place, the scheduled hunting for singles in the woods and the constant threat of being transformed into an animal, David comes to a bitter conclusion: With only a few days left, he has to fake it until he hopefully makes it, preferably out of the hotel and into the woods. When a pretend match ends in murder and an escape to the loners in the forest, he experiences the other extreme of this crazy relationship-scale: forced and militant singledom. Unfortunately, the woods are where David happens to find the love of his life (Rachel Weisz)...

Director Yorgos Lanthimos’ dark take on people’s obsession with relationships is probably one of the most and least romantic satires in a while. The dialogue is as emotional as the manual for your new microwave, the cinematography grayish and stiff–and yet, Colin Farrell and Rachel Weisz’ quirky performances result in a movie couple so wonderfully weird, that you can’t help but want them to awkwardly sign-language their way into the sunset. Especially Colin Farrell treats us with a memorable performance gracefully caught between deadpan and bursting of repressed emotion. His David is a fascinating individual: With the ability to adapt to any given circumstance, he transforms from a simple pushover to a desperate rebel sacrificing his eye-sight for love. Or, is he? Whether he actually goes through with this we don’t know. Because “The Lobster”, and this is something the film seems to not be able stressing enough, is an arthouse film. No, this is a movie that does not even bother to appeal to everybody. This urge to stand out of all the dystopian blockbusters, all the Hunger Games, the Walking Deads and, on the other side, the rom-coms with their inevitably happy endings, is the film’s both strongest and weakest quality. Strong in the sense that its unconventional take on love and relationships–the regime’s idea that they depend on a single defining characteristic, rather than real feelings, thus stripping the film of most its emotionality–make the rare moments in which true emotions are shown feel uncomfortable and out of place, but also worth protecting.

But then again, the film’s “specialness” does not always work out. It seems like writers Lathimos and Efthimis Filippou were so happily befuddled by their clever idea of the film’s first part, the one with the hotel and–let’s be honest–the one people are talking about when describing the movie, that the second half seems somehow neglected. Sure, as mentioned before, Rachel Weisz does a great job at being awkward, Léa Seydoux makes for a mostly convincing leader of the loners, but at some point it all becomes a little tiresome. It seems like in this second half, the film has forgotten its unique premise, and we the viewers would likely forget about it as well, if it weren’t for all those exotic animals casually roaming the woods. Instead, we get trips into the city where the relationship police control everybody who seems unaccompanied and an over-the-top make out session by the starring couple.

Don’t get me wrong, “The Lobster” is still a great film. It’s just that out of all films, this slow, static movie could have used an oxygen tank to pull it through its second half to the end. It seems like Lathimos is teasing us with just the right amount of a hint at an action scene, just to slow it down and take its mass appeal away from us. The chase through the hotel? Shot with a static camera. The hunt in the woods? Shown in slow motion. This is what makes “The Lobster” post-cinematic: instead of exploiting all the crazy possibilities this whole ‘people get turned into animals’ idea has to offer, it withholds them from us und leaves us with just as many questions as we had in the beginning: Who exactly is the short-sighted woman? What is her story? Seriously, what is so special about this robotic person that makes David fall in love with her? And by the way, what made society turn into a dystopia? Why have people lost their emotions? And how the hell do they transform people into animals? Can we see it??

No, of course we can’t. We are watching a wacky arthouse film, remember?