The Lobster (2015)
“That would be absurd.”
The Lobster is Yorgos Lanthimos’s first foray into making English language films, alongside his longtime writing collaborator Efthimis Filippou. Shot in Ireland with Colin Ferrall as the lead, the story is set in an alternative reality where single people have 45 days at a resort to pair off with a romantic partner, or be turned into an animal. Depending on how you feel about dating, this is either a comedy or a horror film (the music definitely leans into the horror), though there is a sort of sweetness underneath all the strangeness. The characters all speak with the same monotone affect, and their emotions struggle to burst through a painfully polite demeanour. The dialogue is often uncomfortably literal, and when characters fail to follow the many strict rules of the hotel, they are met with bizarre and brutal punishments.
What I find so truthful about this story is all the ways the characters try to connect with each other through superficial traits - like how both people have a limp, or need glasses, and therefore they must be a good match. While the rules may seem absurd, they are no less absurd than the rules we actually follow in our daily lives. Is this not exactly what a dating profile is? Do social norms not influence the reasons we stay in relationships? In The Lobster, the hotel residents get extra time to find a match if they hunt down members of the Loner community who live in the nearby woods, as if the very presence of someone proudly single poses an existential threat. In our world, we abhor singledom. We treat it like a flaw, an infectious disease even (ask divorcees how many of their coupled friends they keep post breakup). When Farrell’s character escapes the hotel to join the Loners, they also have their own set of brutal rules, as if the worst thing anyone could do is change their mind about their own needs and wants. In The Lobster, you’ll find a distressing reflection of all the ways we mutilate our bodies and our spirits, just to fit in.
