If you can get over whatever weirdness is behind the core concept of a Yorgos Lanthimos film you’re pretty much good to go. Watching becomes easy once you wrap your head around say, three teenagers raised in complete isolation, people impersonating the dead for money or, in the case of his latest work, a hotel for single people who get turned into animals if they fail. The ‘hows’ and ‘whys’ of this bleak future are secondary to experiencing the effects of a culture which approaches something so natural with such rigidity.
The rigidity though is a big part of The Lobster’s humour. Inducting our protagonist David-Colin Farrell, still sporting his Horrible Bosses beer gut-into an environment that can’t accommodate his sexual curiosity or even his unique shoe size (44.5). For the first half of the film this is the prevailing theme; society’s ingrained tunnel vision around what does and doesn’t work as a relationship. Long term couples like the Hotel Manager-a comically stilted Olivia Coleman- and her partner are a picture of marital misery. Even couples outside of the hotel seemed to be based on arbitrary commonalities like short-sightedness and math skills. It’s all so chilly and formal that David’s early attempts at coupling are painfully awkward. In the hands of a less skilled director such moments would be a slog to watch but Lanthimos has enough of a grasp of timing to make them comedy gold.
It’s not all half-baked attempts at flirting though. The first act is broken up with several trips out to the woods to capture the ‘loners’, people unable to pair who have fled the prospect of being transformed. This is a chance for Lanthimos to stretch his artistry a little with long, slow-motion sequences of the hunt. More importantly though it’s a reminder of the fate that awaits David the longer it takes for him to find a partner. A nice, consistent reminder of his remaining days at the hotel.
The Loners become much more important in the second half of the film when it all goes south for David. In fleeing the hospital and joining the local resistance movement they essentially turn The Lobster into a sort of European Neo-realist version of Equilibrium. Of course Lanthimos is smart enough to not completely vilify the Loners. While they do offer more freedoms they also forbid pairing, require members to dig their own graves and flirting is harshly punished. It’s an apt message, that no society’s version of relationships is applicable to everyone but it didn’t really need this much time to explain. While the humour and characterisation is as sharp as ever it can’t help but drag the film’s momentum to a halt.
The real shame of this is that it doesn’t allow time to build the intimacy between David and his eventual love interest; Rachel Weisz, simply credited as Short-Sighted Woman. Their pairing is deliberately superficial and has some tender moments but it would have been nice if their relationship had been based on mutual interests and chemistry (y’know, like in the real world). To their credit though both Farrell and Weisz manage to work through the script’s knowingly decorous dialogue while communicating a strong emotional bond.
On that note the film boasts an amazing supporting cast with great comic timing. Not just Coleman and Weisz but Ben Whishaw and John C. Reilly as hotel residents; the two are equal parts frustrated and pathetic without overplaying it. Ashley Jensen feels a little ‘on-type’ as ‘Biscuit Woman’ a resident who’s a touch too desperate in her attempt to find a match. The real surprise though is Lea Sedoux as the Loner Leader, a capable and somewhat heartless figure who takes pleasure in undermining the hotel’s hollow principles.
The Lobster is utterly unlike any other film this year, save perhaps Peter Strickland’s equally oddball The Duke of Burgandy. A funny and thoughtful look into society’s strict categorisation of human relationships that falls just short of being truly great by its severe pacing problems.
It’s not all half-baked attempts at flirting though. The first act is broken up with several trips out to the woods to capture the ‘loners’, people unable to pair who have fled the prospect of being transformed. This is a chance for Lanthimos to stretch his artistry a little with long, slow-motion sequences of the hunt. More importantly though it’s a reminder of the fate that awaits David the longer it takes for him to find a partner. A nice, consistent reminder of his remaining days at the hotel.
The Loners become much more important in the second half of the film when it all goes south for David. In fleeing the hospital and joining the local resistance movement they essentially turn The Lobster into a sort of European Neo-realist version of Equilibrium. Of course Lanthimos is smart enough to not completely vilify the Loners. While they do offer more freedoms they also forbid pairing, require members to dig their own graves and flirting is harshly punished. It’s an apt message, that no society’s version of relationships is applicable to everyone but it didn’t really need this much time to explain. While the humour and characterisation is as sharp as ever it can’t help but drag the film’s momentum to a halt.
The real shame of this is that it doesn’t allow time to build the intimacy between David and his eventual love interest; Rachel Weisz, simply credited as Short-Sighted Woman. Their pairing is deliberately superficial and has some tender moments but it would have been nice if their relationship had been based on mutual interests and chemistry (y’know, like in the real world). To their credit though both Farrell and Weisz manage to work through the script’s knowingly decorous dialogue while communicating a strong emotional bond.
On that note the film boasts an amazing supporting cast with great comic timing. Not just Coleman and Weisz but Ben Whishaw and John C. Reilly as hotel residents; the two are equal parts frustrated and pathetic without overplaying it. Ashley Jensen feels a little ‘on-type’ as ‘Biscuit Woman’ a resident who’s a touch too desperate in her attempt to find a match. The real surprise though is Lea Sedoux as the Loner Leader, a capable and somewhat heartless figure who takes pleasure in undermining the hotel’s hollow principles.
The Lobster is utterly unlike any other film this year, save perhaps Peter Strickland’s equally oddball The Duke of Burgandy. A funny and thoughtful look into society’s strict categorisation of human relationships that falls just short of being truly great by its severe pacing problems.
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