Caught up on the indie comedy(?) romance (?) sci-fi (?) film The Lobster – available on Amazon Prime. This is a rather… odd… movie starring Colin Farrell, Rachel Weisz, and John C. Reilly (in a small roll). What’s it about? Well… there’s what it’s about (which is weird) and how it’s about it (even weirder).
In the near (?) future (?), you are required by law to be coupled with or married to someone. Anyone single is rounded up and sent to The Hotel where they have a certain number of days to find a compatible mate. You spend your time having weird conversation with people, watching the Hotel staff demonstrate the difference between being alone and with someone, and hunting down singles who are apparently all hiding in The Forest. If you cannot find a compatible mate within the prescribed time period, you will be turned into an animal of your choosing.
Colin Farrell is recently divorced and therefor has been shipped to the Hotel (with his dog who used to be his brother). Will he find a mate in time or will he be turned into a Lobster? Lobsters live in the sea which he likes, live a long time, have blue blood like aristocrats, and are fertile their whole lives. So, you see, it just makes sense!
So the movie has a weird plot but what’s really odd about this film is the dialog and the acting. Everyone speaks as though this whole “being human” and “having emotions” thing is new to them. Very stilted, very elaborate…. and emotionless as though these weird things going on are nothing unique or even particularly interesting. If the movie told me that every person in the cast was, in fact, a robot, I wouldn’t have been surprised. It’s possible they are acting, pretending to not notice things or care about them, or it’s conceivably possible they have had their emotions removed (though there is no evidence of this).
The way you find a compatible person is you define your most interesting characteristic – like a limp, a lisp, a nose that randomly bleeds, nearsightedness – and you find someone with the same trait. Instant love connection! And if you have trouble with your new potential mate, the Hotel will assign you a child which should fix all the problems in your relationship.
This movie made me laugh… sometimes at some pretty horrific concepts. It plays everything deadpan so even when someone says or does something hideous, the characters barely react to it since that would require emotion… and that’s funny somehow. The problem is, can that be funny throughout? And can a movie be romantic when the characters can barely generate an emotion? The answer is yes… somehow… and it can also be deeply tragic.
I didn’t know what to make of the movie going in and I’m equally confused – but amused – after having finished it. I kind of recommend it but only if you are willing to just go with some real weird stuff. If you don’t buy the conceit and the tone/sense of humor of the movie, it’ll be like nails on chalkboard, I suspect.
Score: 86