Review of The Lobster (2015) by Cameron H — 19 Jun 2016

Director and co-screenwriter Yorgos Lanthimos does not want to tell anything in plain terms - establishment of premise, character motives, plot progression in a given scene. Good on him, as he flourishes what would simply be a well-performed dystopian tale with refreshingly oddball humour. A full five-star rating may seem like a reach to acclaim one movie as the best in a very long time, but on the standards of all cinematic history, I feel confident in the legacy of The Lobster. While a movie like Birdman had such a strong aesthetical appeal that we could look past the overwrought story, The Lobster, stripped to the core, is quite unsettling. Somewhere on the planet - maybe the UK, or all of Europe, or everywhere - the government strictly enforces a rule that every person must be ready to be partners with someone else, by the age of 18. (That is my attempt to describe the rule precisely. This is never directly explained, much to my curious delight.) If one does not succeed, and complies with the law, either they must check into a resort for finding a partner in a semi-flexible time limit, or they must let themselves be transformed into an animal of their choice. Those who do not comply and run in the wild will be tranquilized by resort attendees and transformed in animals most needed in the world. The fact that such a story was even conceived is alone worth a few stars. On top of that, Lanthimos and fellow screenwriter Efthimis Filippou lace this story with a moving examination of love, filtered through the world's strict structuralism. For example, partners must share a defining characteristic, in order for their relationship to be deemed legitimate. The lengths to which David (Colin Farrell) and, ahem, "The Limping Man" (Ben Whishaw) attempt to match characteristics with someone else seem hilarious and desperate from our world, yet sympathetic from their world. Whishaw adopts a routine of banging his head against a surface until his nose bleeds, to match someone who frequently gets nosebleeds; it is a great laugh AND it allows reflection on what love means in our world, versus this world.

The performances... well, Colin Farrell is the winner, no doubt. I would also like to commend the other main character, played by Rachel Weisz. I do not often describe someone as "savagely sweet," but I find that descriptor to be accurate for her performance. She acts and speaks with such delicacy that I am surprised she still stands on her own in the world, but her intentions become more clearly survivalist than she might lead on. She is also the narrator of the movie, and describes Farrell's experiences with deadpan intimacy for what was on his mind. Having a narrator was not necessary, especially since she hardly explained any of the story's core mysteries. However, the fact that she is there adds greater longing for explanation, which Lanthimos and Filippou refuse to offer. Personally, I was far more welcome to insight into Farrell's mind, for he stole the screen. I have no idea what purpose he served before entering the resort. I would like to imagine that he was one of those office clerks that kept to himself because everyone else thought he was too weird to fit into any groups. Yeah, I am thinking of Milton from Office Space. Milton had sick thoughts, but Office Space would have never been the movie to examine his weird tendencies with sharp detail. The Lobster, meanwhile, does just that with the character of David. He might be autistic; his manner of changing motives, based on happenings, does not seem to fit with even the other characters of the movie. David preoccupies himself with minor qualms, while lacking any real compassion for anyone other than himself.

*SPOILER* That preoccupation and lack of compassion is most easily exemplified in the raid of the resort, when Farrell foregoes the task of tranquilizing any guests and instead tries to ruin the marriage between the Limping Man and the Nosebleed Woman. The best depiction, however, would be the suitably ambiguous ending. I heard the door open twice. Earlier in the movie, the Heartless Woman (Angeliki Papoulia) emphasizes a governed standard of love, that communication is important. Farrell screwed that up, and, if I heard the sounds correctly, he did not learn anything from that experience. It does not seem like he learned anything from his failed marriage, either. He refers to it, simply as something that happened. They no longer love each other. Does that have to do with defining characteristics, or is it something more emotionally fluid than that? That is one of many mysteries that the movie brings up, and allows viewers to decipher. So, this film might be hard to digest, due to its strangeness. I would not dare say that the film acts self-congratulatory about it. When the setting is busy being completely out of any reality I have experienced, characters are talking in a manner that feels unhuman in my world, yet completely sensible in the reality of their world. And when that becomes the forefront of a scene, Lanthimos cuts out the dialogue and slows everything down, to cut to something even stranger. Simply put, I have never experienced anything like The Lobster. Maybe in a few years' time, I can see Lanthimos' influences and look back at the movie as an inevitable successor. For now, Lanthimos does not make anything clear, not even what inspired him or what will be next. Thank you.