'The Lobster' asks too much of viewers
As movie fables go, 鈥淭he Lobster鈥� at least gets bonus points for novelty. It鈥檚 about a near-future society where to be single is a crime punishable in the most bizarre of ways. Mateless citizens are rounded up and sequestered in a hotel-like prison facility and given 45 days to find true love. Failing that, they are turned into animals.聽
The victims are allowed to choose what animal they wish to become. (This suggests an interesting parlor game: What animal would you choose to be?) The film鈥檚 main protagonist, David (Colin Farrell), newly arrived at the facility, lists a lobster as his appointed animal of choice (a crustacean, technically, but why nitpick?). He explains to the Nurse Ratched-like hotel manager (Olivia Colman) that lobsters live a long time and have blue blood. He neglects to mention that they also taste good.
It took me a while to get inside this film鈥檚 premise, and when I finally did, I wasn鈥檛 sure it was worth the effort. The Greek director and co-writer, Yorgos Lanthimos, in his first English-language film, has a cult reputation, and 鈥淭he Lobster,鈥� despite some top names in the cast, which also includes Rachel Weisz, Ben Whishaw, John C. Reilly, and L茅a Seydoux, is nothing if not a cult film. But its tone of deadpan absurdism never really develops into anything truly subversive or visionary. It鈥檚 a weirdo, sub-J.G. Ballard conceit: J.G. Ballard for Dummies.
The residents of the hotel, who know each other only by their room numbers, must observe strict laws. The place may look like a four-star establishment, but that鈥檚 a sham. Infractions are punishable by little mini-tortures, like forcing a transgressor鈥檚 hand inside a hot toaster, and ultimately, of course, there are those looming creature conversions to look forward to.
Understandably, the mateless residents desperately attempt to pair up with partners who may not, in fact, be compatible 鈥� another sham. 鈥淟imping Man鈥� (Whishaw) feigns nosebleeds in order to align himself with a nosebleeding female resident (Jessica Barden). David hooks up with a woman (Angeliki Papoulia) renowned for her pathological lack of empathy by pretending to have an equal pathology.
It doesn鈥檛 pay to ask how these people are turned into animals; it鈥檚 just something we are asked to accept. But we are asked too much by this movie. When David escapes to the forest and joins a clan of 鈥渓oners,鈥� I thought the film might morph into something more daring or transgressive. (Seydoux, looking fiercely blank, like someone out of 鈥淭he Hunger Games,鈥� is the loners鈥� leader.) Instead, the obvious occurs: The loners, who are not allowed to even flirt with each other, are simply another species of prisoner.
There are a few tart sequences. David and another loner, played by Weisz, develop a forbidden romance that is touching and tender in its hesitancy. (Both are very nearsighted.) In one very funny and very sad scene, the loners are shown dancing by themselves in the dark woods, each dancer shimmying silently in his or her own touchless zone of privacy.聽
But Lanthimos doesn鈥檛 have the directorial energy to stir this thick allegorical stew. Lacking any of the conventional action-thriller movie skills, his deadpan style may be the only one available to him. The film鈥檚 ending, with its whispery air of ambiguity, comes across as a massive cop-out. I鈥檓 not sure David wouldn鈥檛 be better off as a lobster. At least he could try out for the Avengers. Grade: C+ (Rated R for sexual content, including dialogue, and some violence.)
