I really liked The Lobster a lot. It is a dark satirical movie that pokes fun at the societal obsession with being coupled up in a relationship. Colin Farrell plays a guy who gets dumped by his wife, and because legally he cannot be single in a dystopian society, he has to go to a hotel where he has 45 days to find a mate, or he will turn into an animal (he chooses a lobster because he loves the ocean). Ben Wishaw and John C. Reilly are amongst the awkward singles, and it is both sad and painfully funny.
Farrell looks like Ned Flanders with a paunch, and is a very sympathetic character living in an unfair world obsessed with couples and punishing the single ones, who turn into dogs, camels, flamingos, peacocks, and other animals wandering around.
There is a group of rebels in the forest outside the resort, called The Loners, who live as single people and forbid romance, led by their sadistic and tyrannical leader (Lea Seydoux). Rachel Weisz plays one of the Loners (and narrator of most of the film), and while her and Farrell's characters predictably fall in love, their romance doesn't go as triumphantly as one would expect. Seydoux was great as the leader, someone who took her anger about being forced to couple up out on her pack, and delivered a chilling performance.
I loved how the movie was so matter-of-fact about these rules, how the hotel manager would deliver rules in a crisp and rehearsed voice, saying things like "if you become an animal, you must partner with an animal of the same or similar species. A dog and a penguin could never be together, nor could a camel and a hippo. That would be ridiculous." As opposed to the whole forced transformation idea or punishing people for being single.
I liked the supporting characters at the hotel, like an awkward young woman who gets nosebleeds a lot, a haughty young woman who treasures her long blond hair and ultimately becomes a pony with a blonde mane, and a heartless woman whose sociopathy knows no bounds. And the film was broken into two parts (hotel and the forest), and was well-crafted and had a stellar cast. I highly recommend it.
There is a group of rebels in the forest outside the resort, called The Loners, who live as single people and forbid romance, led by their sadistic and tyrannical leader (Lea Seydoux). Rachel Weisz plays one of the Loners (and narrator of most of the film), and while her and Farrell's characters predictably fall in love, their romance doesn't go as triumphantly as one would expect. Seydoux was great as the leader, someone who took her anger about being forced to couple up out on her pack, and delivered a chilling performance.
I loved how the movie was so matter-of-fact about these rules, how the hotel manager would deliver rules in a crisp and rehearsed voice, saying things like "if you become an animal, you must partner with an animal of the same or similar species. A dog and a penguin could never be together, nor could a camel and a hippo. That would be ridiculous." As opposed to the whole forced transformation idea or punishing people for being single.
I liked the supporting characters at the hotel, like an awkward young woman who gets nosebleeds a lot, a haughty young woman who treasures her long blond hair and ultimately becomes a pony with a blonde mane, and a heartless woman whose sociopathy knows no bounds. And the film was broken into two parts (hotel and the forest), and was well-crafted and had a stellar cast. I highly recommend it.
