Review of The Lobster (2015) by Alvaro O — 24 Sep 2016

If you like your movies weird this is probably one I'd suggest you take a look at. It's also something you have to devote your entire attention to since everything is dialogue and there's not too much in the way of excitement happening here. It's more so the way this world works that is fascinating.

David's wife has left him, which means David as 45 days to fall in love with someone else. He's sent off to a hotel where other singles are sent to mingle and find true love. You can buy a longer stay by capturing 'loners' in the woods (1 day per longer caught) but if you run out of time you are turned into an animal. You get to choose the animal at least.

Knowing you only have a set amount of time before you, at least the you that you're familiar with, ceases to exist, causes the sort of stupid decisions that you'd expect. These attempts (successful and not) are played absolutely serious and while the whole film is absurd you can't help but feel something very familiar in the way to hotel champions coupled life to the point of discomfort.

It would be vary easy to play the loner lifestyle as a utopia of sorts but you also see the same sort of poor decisions on that side as well. They are just as regimented and just as disdainful of coupledom as coupledom is of them.

It is a fascinating movie to watch. The performances are excellent, what little sound and scoring is used is perfect, and you're told just enough about this world to understand what you're seeing without being spoonfed but also wonder about the rest.

Give it a shot if you haven't. If you like it you'll really like it.