Yesterday I was finally able to finish the movie, "The Lobster". I started it a few days ago, but with picking up my kid from school and doing things during the day with my daughter, it usually takes me 2 to 3 sittings to finish a 2 hour movie. "The Lobster" was recommended to me by a few people who's taste in movie I very much trust. I am not a Colin Farrell fan when he plays an American in some stupid action movie, but, when he gets to use his own dialect and accent, the results always seem so much better. I was assured by said people that he spoke with his Irish tone in "The Lobster". I was also told that the tone and pace of this movie was right up my alley. I like darker, dystopian future movies. I appreciate when writers and directors make a movie of the not so distant future and it isn't all peachy and sweet. I'm usually right on board. That is exactly what "The Lobster" did.
"The Lobster" movie takes place in a very near future in Ireland. People who have lost their spouse, be it divorce, death or them just straight up leaving, are sent to a hotel where they have 45 days to find a mate. I call it a hotel, but it seems more like a prison. At the end of the 45 days, if they haven't found a partner, they get turned into an animal of their choosing. Sounds pretty weird, right? Well, I loved the story this movie was telling. It is such a weird concept, but maybe, just maybe, this is something that could definitely happen in the near future.
The movie opens with a lady driving out to the hills of Ireland and shooting a cow. I was confused, yet intrigued. We then see Farrell and a lady is talking off camera, letting him know that she is leaving him. Farrell has glasses on, and his only question to her is, "is the man near sighted?". He seems upset, but more so at the man's sight as opposed to the fact that his wife is leaving him for this other person. Farrell then checks himself into this hotel with his dog. He states to the clerk at the front office that maybe they remember his brother, he had been there a few years ago. She does not remember him. This was when I started to suspect that the dog may have been his brother. Farrell then goes to his room and is asked a plethora of questions involving his sexual past and present, and what kind of animal he would want to be turned into if he doesn't find a mate. This was so uncomfortable, but also fascinating to watch. This was the exact moment that Farrell won me over in this movie. His performance, as a monotone loner that is upset, but won't show it, was spot on.
After all the inquisition, we jump cut to a scene at the hotel dining room area. By the way, this blog is going to be filled with spoilers. Nothing too big yet, but it is coming. In the dining hall we meet 2 of Farrell's "friends" at the hotel, played by John C Reilly and Ben Whishaw. Both are wonderful in their smallish roles. Reilly is a total punching bag. He lets people walk all over him. Whishaw is a snake that will do whatever it takes to find a mate. He was tremendous in the movie. After they have a very bizarre dance scene, everyone is whisked away in a bus to go and "hunt" outsiders. Outsiders are people that have either left the hotel or do not want to go this this terrible place. They live in the woods and anytime the hotel occupants come to "hunt" them, they use tranquilizer darts to capture the Outsiders and bring them back to the hotel, the Outsiders fight back or try to get away. The "hunting" scenes are intense.
Throughout the first 2/3 of this movie, we get a narrator telling the story of how she met Farrell's character. It is very helpful to give you some kind of idea of what is going on. After the first "hunt", Farrell meets a lady that only has a day or 2 left to find someone, and she claims she is going to kill herself if she doesn't find someone. Another lady he meets at the pool has one day left, and she proclaims to him that she cannot wait to be turned into a mini horse. She has beautiful hair, so she sees that being the only animal she can turn into. There is a third lady that, as the narrator says, "is the most heartless person that ever existed". Farrell decides that he is going to make the heartless lady his companion. He puts on a whole show for her, and she agrees to be his mate. They get moved to the couples hotel, they have a separate spot for couples, and they have one of the most unsatisfying and unhappy relationships that I have ever seen. This is what the lady wants. It is not what Farrell wants. At one point Farrell wakes up and he sees blood on the lady's leg and she has told him that she "killed his brother. There was no struggle". I was horrified by this because it meant that she killed his dog, and it reaffirmed my suspicion that the dog was his brother. Farrell shows his first true sign of emotion, going to the bathroom to cry, and his mate finds him, calls him an unfit match and starts to march him towards the room where they transform people into animals. Farrell manages to escape her, with a little help from a hotel worker, and flees the scene, but not before transforming the lady who killed his dog/brother. We never see what animal he transforms her to, but I think it is better that way. While fleeing, he finds the Outsiders and asks to join them. They have a leader, and she allows him in the group.
Throughout his transformation from hotel attendant to Outsider, Farrell, and the viewing audience, meet the narrator. She has no name, but Rachel Weisz plays her, and she is amazing in the role. She still narrates the movie, but we get to see some dialogue between her and Farrell. The Outsiders are supposed to be opposed to the hotel and what they do, but they do have some weird rules. There can be no physical contact between the people in the group. If someone kisses someone, they get their tongues cut out. You can imagine how much worse it gets the further the relationship goes. Farrell fits in so well with the Outsiders, he is fourth in command within no time. The four main Outsiders travel to the city to get the things they need to go and try to destroy the hotel and its occupants. These scenes are great, and when they do storm the hotel, it is a pretty cool scene.
Soon after the hotel fight, Farrell and Weisz start to find a way to be romantically involved without getting in trouble. They find ways to communicate and find times to be alone. This all comes to a head when a mole finds Weisz's journal. The leader of the Outsiders takes things into her own hands and makes Farrell dig his own grave and blinds Weisz's character. Weisz thinks that she is getting surgery to correct her eyes, she is short sighted, but the leader wants her blinded for having emotional feelings with another Outsider. Farrell had to dig his own grave and put dirt on his body, but that was as bad as it got for him. He and Weisz decide that they are going to leave the woods and live a life in the city. But, when Farrell finds out she is blind, he is not so sure anymore. Eventually love wins out for him, and he and Weisz find a way to get out. Farrell knocks out the leader and puts her in the grave he just dug and he and Weisz flee during the daylight. The final scene has Farrell and Weisz at a restaurant and Farrell heads to the bathroom with a knife, possibly to blind himself. The movie ends on that cliffhanger. We do not know if he goes through it or not.
What I enjoyed so much about "The Lobster" is the way they approached the stigma of single people that are older. They made it seem bad, but who really cares? I also liked the way they showed how far people will go for love, see Farrell pondering blinding himself. "The Lobster" is weird and different and not for everyone. I loved it, and if you like dark movies that will make you think, I recommend checking it out. "The Lobster" stays with you and really makes you contemplate how far, or what you'd do for love. It was an interesting and very well made movie.
Ty
Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. If put in the same situation as the movie, Ty would choose to be transformed into a butterfly. As Bart Simpson says, "No one suspects the butterfly".
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