In a strange future coupling is not merely encouraged, but necessary. If you lose your mate or cannot find one, one will be supplied for you. Ditto kids. For those lacking in love, accommodation in a basic resort style hotel will put you in close proximity with many other singles. Here you have 45 days to find love. In the event that love is achieved, you and your mate can return to society. If not you are either released to the woods where you will be hunted by other singles, or you can be turned into an animal of your choice…
David chose ‘lobster’ in his pre-interview.
The loners who live in the woods abstain from all intimacy, clearly in defiance of society’s wishes. Instead they shuffle dance awkwardly to techno music on headphones while keeping an eye on hunters from the Love Hotel armed with stun guns. It is here that David meets with an unnamed short sighted woman played by Rachel Weisz, and the pair dare discuss matters of attraction.
The Lobster seems written by five people kept in different rooms with no idea of what the others are writing. How else to explain a film that changes tack wildly on no less than half a dozen occasions with no coherence and a cast that look perpetually confused?
I kept waiting for the film to settle on an idea and stick with it, but alas this lobster remained too in love with its quirkiness to actually attempt to tell a story or even make a point. And when you don’t tell a story or make a point, you might occasionally be interesting, but you are ultimately pointless.
This isn’t sci-fi. It isn’t a romance. It isn’t a drama. It isn’t a comedy. It could have been all of those things. Instead it is a lobster, an odd thing no one thinks about much, and with good reason…
Final Rating – 6.5 / 10. When they ask for your order, think long and hard before you order the Lobster…
