The Lobster

Description

In a society that doesn’t just frown on single people, but in fact repudiates them, David (Colin Farrell) is in a pickle. Dumped by his wife for another man, he has 45 days to find a new mate at an isolated English resort or else face harsh consequences. Either way, the effrontery of his solo status will be redressed in Greek auteur Yorgos Lanthimos’s English-language debut, a heady mix of black comedy, sci-fi, romance and thriller. Like his previous work, including Dogtooth (2009) and Alps (SFIFF 2012), this Cannes Film Festival Jury Prize winner takes place in a singular world ruled by eccentric dictums. Within the hotel, David and his fellow singletons, including Lisping Man (John C. Reilly), Limping Man (Ben Whishsaw) and Nosebleed Woman (Jessica Barden), are bound by strict guidelines when it comes to finding a partner. Our hero is desperate to become part of a couple, but those rigid, dehumanizing rules begin to get under his skin and the thought of escaping into the woods, the domain of “loners”—resort escapees that include their leader (Léa Seydoux) and Short Sighted Woman (Rachel Weisz)—starts to hold appeal. Lanthimos’s tart observations on societal conformity taken to extremes is darkly funny and oddly touching in a film gorgeously shot by frequent collaborator Thimios Bakatakis and anchored by Farrell’s performance, in which vulnerability competes with naked self-interest. —Pam Grady

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