Review by Eric Hillis (@hilliseric)
Directed by: Yorgos Lanthimos
Starring: Colin Farrell, Rachael Weisz, Jessica Barden, Olivia Colman, Ashley Jensen, Ariane Labed, Angeliki Papoulia, John C Reilly, Lea Seydoux, Michael Smiley, Ben Whishaw
Single people are often viewed as untrustworthy, somewhat dodgy. If you're a politician, it's practically a requirement for you to be in possession of a significant other should you ever wish to run for office. People are single for two reasons; either they can't find anyone or they bizarrely wish to be alone. If they can't find anyone, surely there must be something seriously wrong with them, and if they consciously choose to spend their life in solitude, they really must be bonkers. But singletons view the coupled with equal disdain. We've all had friends who disappeared into a void upon taking their vows, forbidden from leaving the house, joining in social engagements only when accompanied by an event like the baptism of a child or, heaven forbid, somebody else's bloody wedding. And who in their right mind would want to spend eternity with one person? Yes, the single and the married enjoy outwardly cordial relations, but we really hold each other in contempt.
In Lanthimos' world, hooking up is all about finding someone who shares something in common with you, no matter how trivial. In the movie's most hilarious sequence, David attempts to win the affections of a woman known for being completely heartless (Angeliki Papoulia) by pretending to be a sociopath himself. Another guest (Ben Whishaw) forces nose bleeds upon himself to win over a young girl afflicted by chronic epistaxis.
In the nearby woods lives a band of proud 'loners', a terrorist group intent on overthrowing the married status quo and inflicting singledom on their oppressors. In the movie's second half, David finds himself taken in by this group and falling for one of its members (Rachel Weisz, who at 45 appears to be aging backwards), an act punishable by extreme torture.
It's testament to how twisted Lanthimos' comedy is that the biggest laugh out loud moment of The Lobster is a shot of the bloodied corpse of a previously cute and cuddly dog. His film is a throwback to a time when comedy and arthouse weren't mutually exclusive genres; the era of Bunuel, early Woody Allen, the BBC's Reginald Perrin, Monty Python and even the more esoteric sketches of British comic duo The Two Ronnies. Indeed, its gloomy Irish setting gives The Lobster the look of a 1970s BBC outdoor filming unit production, with the threat of rain constantly looming.
