The Lobster (2015)
Colin Farrell, Rachel Weisz, Lea Seydoux, John C. Reilly. Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos. Written by Lanthimos and Efthymis Filippou.
The world can be unkind to romantically unattached singles, many of whom spend their whole lives searching for someone who will connect with them in some deeply meaningful way. Or, barring that, someone who will at least agree that life spent with just about anyone at all is better than spending it with nobody. This is not a new theme in film or in any other realm exploring the miserable stuff of life.
Yorgos Lanthimoss The Lobster takes our preoccupation with love (or at least couplehood) to absurd extremes in a way thats supposed to be funny but leans so far over into terrible that I found it difficult to laugh even when I knew I was supposed to, although most of the time I wasnt sure whether scenes were meant to make me laugh, cry, or recoil in utter horror, which I suppose is the point. Characters go to ridiculous lengths to establish connections with potential lovers, one of them arriving at the baffling conclusion that its easier to act like you dont care about someone who doesnt like you than it is to act like you do care about someone who does like you.
Considering whats at stake, its difficult exactly to judge any of them, for in this dystopian Ireland, newly single people check into hotels and are given forty-five days to find new partners. If they dont, they are turned into the animals of their choice. When David, the films main character, is abandoned by his wife, he brings his dog to the hotel, because the dog is his brother. The hotel has strict rules, all of them designed to encourage partnering up before the grace period is over, and although everyone is there for the same reason as David, connecting with someone just isnt easy. That woman is very pretty, and this woman is sweet and friendly, and that sexually uninhibited one over there keeps inviting you to her room, but but but
Lanthimos does interesting work in framing the love-obsessed world, but then he rotates the image, skewering and condemning unapologetic singles who pass judgment on couples. This next-leveling turns what would have been a creative but rather shallow black comedy into something much more interesting in a kind of not-so-fast-you-in-the-condescension-corner-yeah-Im-talking-to-you way. If I like this movie at all, its because I found myself tsk-tsking in the first half and dodging the finger of accusation in the second. What a neat, amusing, and embarrassing experience.
Everything about this film is cold. The lighting is cold. The acting is cold. The dialogue is cold. Even the score, mostly chamber-type classical music, is cold. Its tempting to call the acting flat and inhibited, but theres something stirring down there, beneath the surfaces of these characters who seem so insipidly conceived. They dont have names, and only one or two have backstories. I dont know what the rationale was here, but this approach makes the film more challenging than seems necessary. Still, flashes of warmth and realness by Colin Farrell, Rachel Weisz, John C. Reilly, and a few of the others give the impression that theres some real acting going on, and I may need another viewing to get a better idea of what the actors are doing.
The Lobster is easily a movie about love, but I wonder if its not also about faith, or politics, or education, or anything else with a dominant culture, a defiant counterculture, and people who cant seem to find their place in the tiny space between. Either way, I find it an inspiring film despite this weird feeling that Im not supposed to be inspired by it.
8/10 (IMDb rating)
83/100 (Criticker rating)
The Lobster (2015)
Colin Farrell, Rachel Weisz, Lea Seydoux, John C. Reilly. Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos. Written by Lanthimos and Efthymis Filippou.
The world can be unkind to romantically unattached singles, many of whom spend their whole lives searching for someone who will connect with them in some deeply meaningful way. Or, barring that, someone who will at least agree that life spent with just about anyone at all is better than spending it with nobody. This is not a new theme in film or in any other realm exploring the miserable stuff of life.
Yorgos Lanthimoss The Lobster takes our preoccupation with love (or at least couplehood) to absurd extremes in a way thats supposed to be funny but leans so far over into terrible that I found it difficult to laugh even when I knew I was supposed to, although most of the time I wasnt sure whether scenes were meant to make me laugh, cry, or recoil in utter horror, which I suppose is the point. Characters go to ridiculous lengths to establish connections with potential lovers, one of them arriving at the baffling conclusion that its easier to act like you dont care about someone who doesnt like you than it is to act like you do care about someone who does like you.
Considering whats at stake, its difficult exactly to judge any of them, for in this dystopian Ireland, newly single people check into hotels and are given forty-five days to find new partners. If they dont, they are turned into the animals of their choice. When David, the films main character, is abandoned by his wife, he brings his dog to the hotel, because the dog is his brother. The hotel has strict rules, all of them designed to encourage partnering up before the grace period is over, and although everyone is there for the same reason as David, connecting with someone just isnt easy. That woman is very pretty, and this woman is sweet and friendly, and that sexually uninhibited one over there keeps inviting you to her room, but but but
Lanthimos does interesting work in framing the love-obsessed world, but then he rotates the image, skewering and condemning unapologetic singles who pass judgment on couples. This next-leveling turns what would have been a creative but rather shallow black comedy into something much more interesting in a kind of not-so-fast-you-in-the-condescension-corner-yeah-Im-talking-to-you way. If I like this movie at all, its because I found myself tsk-tsking in the first half and dodging the finger of accusation in the second. What a neat, amusing, and embarrassing experience.
Everything about this film is cold. The lighting is cold. The acting is cold. The dialogue is cold. Even the score, mostly chamber-type classical music, is cold. Its tempting to call the acting flat and inhibited, but theres something stirring down there, beneath the surfaces of these characters who seem so insipidly conceived. They dont have names, and only one or two have backstories. I dont know what the rationale was here, but this approach makes the film more challenging than seems necessary. Still, flashes of warmth and realness by Colin Farrell, Rachel Weisz, John C. Reilly, and a few of the others give the impression that theres some real acting going on, and I may need another viewing to get a better idea of what the actors are doing.
The Lobster is easily a movie about love, but I wonder if its not also about faith, or politics, or education, or anything else with a dominant culture, a defiant counterculture, and people who cant seem to find their place in the tiny space between. Either way, I find it an inspiring film despite this weird feeling that Im not supposed to be inspired by it.
8/10 (IMDb rating)
83/100 (Criticker rating)
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