The Lobster

Starring: Colin Farrell, Rachel Weisz, John C. Reilly, Ben Whishaw, Lea Seydoux
Directed by: Yorgos Lanthimos
Rating: R
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
2016

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: In the near future, single people are sent out of the city and into the hotel, where they have 45 days to fall in love, or they are changed into an animal of their choosing.

Review:

Tim: I was excited to see The Lobster because it sounded absolutely crazy, and it got exceptionally good reviews from critics. We get so many of the same movies from Hollywood every year, I was ready for an off-the-wall, original one. So, sitting down for this movie, I was so ready to love it. Unfortunately, I couldn't. I suppose I can kind of see where critics bought into it, but I believe it's too inaccessible, too low impact, and too average to truly be great.

If you are gauging a movie purely by its originality, The Lobster scores off the charts. There's so many "what the heck?" moments throughout this movie. The very premise of you have to fall in love or you are turned into an animal seems absurd and ridiculous. But, the movie treats everything very, very seriously (which makes it very funny, ironically). It's all so crazy that you almost cannot believe you are watching a movie about what you're watching. And there's all these insane other quirks- the hunts, the way people talk to each other, the shockingly blunt things they say. There's so much unexpected, unanticipated, surprising aspects to this film. I get why a critic might say, "I had no way to tell what was coming next, I loved it!" While I appreciated the inherent zaniness of the film, uniqueness alone doesn't make a great movie. It certainly helps in spades, but the movie actually has to be good, you know?

This is where the film falls down. The movie is two hours long, but it feels much longer. It probably needed to be 15 minutes shorter. There's so much weirdness in the film and so little is explained that rather than drawing us into the story and characters, it makes everything a bit inaccessible. You feel like you're a step behind the entire movie, trying to catch up. When answers do come, they are shrouded in ambiguity, so they are unsatisfying. I felt like I needed a companion document just to keep up. That didn't make for the most enjoyable viewing experience. I'm not saying the movie was intellectually over the audience's head, but there are things that could have been done to make it easier to track with.

The characters are all weird, which is fun, but it made it hard to care about them. Colin Farrell did an exceptional job in a bizarre role, but I never really identified with him or was invested in the least. His "friends" are John C. Reilly and Ben Whishaw- both actors I really, really like. Their characters again, are odd and quirky, but there's no emotional hook there. Rachel Weisz is one of my favorite actresses of all time, but still, the weirdness of her character made it difficult for me to identify with her. It's a weird experience to see so many actors I liked in a film where I was completely disconnected from their characters. As I've said a thousand times in my reviews, this isn't going to equal success.

With a movie like The Lobster, it is going to take more work and more energy from the audience. This isn't a movie you can turn your brain off to watch. That's a really good thing- but there needs to be a payoff. I'm willing to invest more mental energy, but I need a return for my investment. That doesn't happen here. It's not worth the effort. So, while the sheer insanity of the movie scores some points for the film, this isn't a movie I was able to connect with, it's not a movie I particularly enjoyed. I needed more for the two hours I spent watching it. I think critics got caught up in the originality of the idea and failed to realize the movie itself wasn't as good as it seemed to be.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating- 6



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