The Lobster

There are conventional, even formulaic films out there and there are unconventional, expressly quirky and bizarre films out there and never the twain shall meet. "The Lobster" definitely falls in the latter category to the point of, not only does it have a bizarre premise, but with an extremely quirky development of character as well.

This is a love story, of sorts, set in a dystopian near future where single people, whether by choice, divorced or widowed, are arrested and transferred to a creepy hotel. There they are obliged to find a matching mate in 45 days. If they fail to do so, they are transformed into an animal of their choice, and released into the woods.
This story centers on David (Colin Farrell) who has just been dumped by his wife, and is sent to a hotel for single adults and is urged to find a new significant other within the 'magical' 45 day period. He meets several quirky individuals including the lisping man (John C. Reilly), the limping man (Ben Whishaw), the nosebleed woman (Jessica Barden) and the heartless woman (Angeliki Papoulia). David eventually meets a runaway from the hotel (Rachel Weisz), and the two begin a secret romance, even though, at this point, they've breached a 'loner' dystopian sect headed up by loner leader (Lea Seydoux).

Others to round out the cast are Olivia Colman as Hotel Manager, Ashley Jensen as Biscuit Woman, Ariane Labed as The Maid and Michael Smiley as Loner Swimmer.

This was certainly creatively directed by Yorgos Lanthimos ("My Best Friend" '01, "Kinetta" '05, "Dogtooth" '09, "Alps" '11, "Venice 70: Future Reloaded" (Documentary) '13). By his very resume this filmmaker puts the Q in quirky. Everyone has an otherwise flat affect expecting nothing from each other as characters. This surely is purposed in his direction and comes across with dry comedic delivery. Lanthimos and his writing partner Efthymis Filippou wrote this extremely unconventional script and I'm not sure if I like it or not. Although the script is well executed, the premise is far from formulaic--in fact so far that the storyline can be confusing in how the story is laid out. There were problems with the storyline that begs particular questions, such as: why do single adults have to be partnered in 45 days or they will be transformed into an animal? Why not 50 days, a year or why at all? This was never explained. I suppose some things in this just went with assumption that this is just how the situation was at this point in our society. This is definitely a film that is clearly not made for a mass audience appeal. Truly a smaller based audience could tolerate or even understand this film. One aspect of interest was the fact that, other than David, no else had an actual name in this. They were named after what they did or were, which certainly makes this an original idea.

As stated above, this film is certainly not everyone's cup of tea. It starts abruptly and ends that way--neither end giving the audience much to analyze. If you're a moviegoer that wants and yearns for a film with a distinct beginning, middle and end, this will confuse and confound you. Otherwise, the direction and acting certainly are worthy of a viewing if you just want to have a film study that has a 2 hour time slot.

Out of 4 Stars: 2.5                                     Rated: R                                      118mins.