Strange and funny, a bit like romance itself.
The Lobster
Grade: A
Director: Yorgos Lanthimos (Alps)
Screenplay: Lanthimos, Efthymis Filippou (Dogtooth)
Cast: Colin Farrell (Bruges), Rachel Weisz (The Constant Gardener)
Rating: R
Runtime: 1 hr 58 min
by John DeSando
“Because lobsters live for over one hundred years, are blue-blooded like aristocrats, and stay fertile all their lives. I also like the sea very much.” David (Colin Farrell)
The dating game is alive and well but this time in a surrealistic romantic comedy, The Lobster. Filmed in Ireland, but probably meant to represent Europe in its current hot mess, this enjoyable magical-realist romance satirically and figuratively features the complex challenges facing anyone dating in the modern age and anyone hoping to assert a unique personality in a time that homogenizes rather than individualizes.
David is attending a spa specializing in finding him a suitable mate or turning him into the animal of his choice if he doesn’t find a mate in 45 days. David chooses the lobster also because, besides the admirable life expectancy and fertility, it has the reputation for fidelity, albeit serially monogamistic.
The fascinating narrative is filled with juicy eccentrics identified by their “defining trait” (e.g., “Lisping Man”—played by John C. Reilly), a nod to the online shortcuts of match making in a harrowing search for love that too often ends up in the figurative animal kingdom. Writer-director Yorgos Lanthimos can satirize boilerplate screenwriting manuals at the same time.
The strict adherence to a couples-only society may appeal to extreme social conservatives today, but it is fraught with frustration for the average sophisticated citizen.
David’s discovery of the “Short-Sighted Woman” (Rachel Weisz) offers hope in a world where “loners” are hunted in the forest and tranquilized. Falling in love, the two go through various plans eventually to liberate them from the strictures of both the hotel and the free-spirited loners in the forest.
Unfortunately, a very Greek tragedy-like outcome affects their eye sights possibly to emphasize the blind nature of love and its violent possibilities. Fortunately, Farrell and Weisz deadpan through the vicissitudes of rebellious love, allowing us to concentrate on how desensitizing the forced decorum of contemporary romance can become.
“If you encounter any problems you cannot resolve yourselves, you will be assigned children, that usually helps.” Hotel Manager (Olivia Colman—perfectly efficient and remote). Whatever happened to serendipity?
John DeSando, a Los Angeles Press Club first-place winner for National Entertainment Journalism, hosts WCBE’s It’s Movie Time and co-hosts Cinema Classics. Contact him at JDeSando@Columbus.rr.com
