THE LOBSTER

The dystopian set-up of THE LOBSTER is an original one - A world, maybe in the future (although it doesn't look futuristic) or maybe an alternate reality, where people who find themselves single must report to a hotel in the country where they have 30 days to find a partner or be transformed into the animal of their choice.  While they are staying in the hotel, the single people can earn extra days of life by helping hunt down "loners"  people who have chosen to remain single and now live in a nearby forest where they commit acts of rebellion against the state.

The hero is played by Colin Farrell whose wife leaves him at the beginning of the film and so he must report to the hotel (bringing along his brother who was there a few years before and was unable to find anybody and is now a dog) where he has a series of adventures and mild SPOILER ends up joining the loners about halfway through the film.

At first I was bit off put by both the use of language and the dialogue.  Characters speak very directly without any trace of irony or humor.  This is done utilizing the Brechtian technique of distancing so as to make it impossible to totally identify with any of the characters.  However, as the film went on and we saw what a different world this is, it all made a kind of sense.

I enjoyed THE LOBSTER.  One of its key strengths is a lot it is actually very funny.  The deadpan humor is expertly written.  The clever idea that is the film's bedrock is only added onto and built up during the narrative.   

What I felt the film was showing was a world where coupling is how the government controls the lives of its citizens (police ask people in public who are alone to show their marriage certificates) not unlike 1984 with its monitoring of all aspects of citizen's lives or BRAVE NEW WORLD with too much sex, drugs, everything destroying the family unit but having the same effect of making people easy to control.

People in this film are forced to base their relationships on trivial similarities such as both being near-sighted or limping or having nice hair.

A slight SPOILER but I believe that in fact people are not turned into animals.  We are never really shown or explained to how this happens but a brainwashed population believes it.  Most likely they are just killed.

I've seen two of Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos' other films DOGTOOTH and ALPS.  They used many of the same odd techniques (speech patterns, weird relations, strange settings) but this is his first English language film and his best so far.  I hope his next film is equally imaginative and thought provoking.