The Lobster – Review (2015)

About – A futuristic society, where you must find a partner, otherwise you are sent to a hotel for 45 days to find a match. When your 45 days are up, you are turned into an animal of your choice.

‘The Lobster’ is a British, dark humour comedy drama. It is not a laugh out loud film, but enough to make you smile. However, with it being a dark humour, not a lot of people will understand or like this type of comedy. Sex and death are the main topics of the humour, which instantly wont flow with some audience members. However, in the circumstances of the film and the angle it is taking, it is used very wisely.

David (Colin Farrell) loses his wife, so has been sent to the hotel for 45 days. In the meantime, we see him talking to different characters and trying to understand the concept of what is happening. Colin Farrell portrays David is a very monotone way, through his voice and the actions he takes. Colin has done an amazing job at this role, he brought humour and common-sense to the character, especially when David had to interact with other characters.

There is a narrator (that we find out to be a character). The narrator in the first act worked brilliantly, somewhat like listening to David’s thoughts, it was also like someone reading a book to us. However, when the narrator was revealed it lost that brilliance. We find out that this narrator was part of the main character’s life. This brought part of the story to a standstill, because it didn’t work after this point. We are open to the idea of a narrator but then finding out this is a character contradicts the beginning, by revealing the character.

The way that ‘The Lobster’ is shot is in a grey effect. Looking past this effect, the cinematography resembles the dark humour that the film proceeds to be. The score helps the cinematography, resembling the theme of the film. This is done by a droning beat a likeness of the famous 1980’s ‘Jaws’ sound. This adds tension and interacts the viewer on what it happening visually. With the cinematography and the score working together, it helps make a more interesting outlook on the film. By doing this, it is taking away the actual narrative, which makes it look and sound incredible.

‘The Lobster’ isn’t a thriller; it is a slow drama. Starting off slow by introducing the characters and the scenes. There is no outrageous drama that we are expecting throughout. It doesn’t help by the tense score that makes us want something drastic to happen. There is a lack of excitement that we are baring for, as said earlier it is a slow burner. However, we are anticipated from the start, but that excitement never comes, which doesn’t work. This makes us feel dishonest afterwards and wanting more from what we expected to see and hear towards the end.

Overall, ‘The Lobster’ has its flaws but makes up for this in other aspects, such as creating great dark humour. This is done by the performances and the script that is presented to us. However, some viewers might not agree with the humour elements as this could feel like a standstill film. There is a small undertone to the film. It is like a paradox to our society today, that everyone must be in a relationship or find that ‘true love’. This isn’t always the case, in reality.