THE LOBSTER
Escape claws
released 8 February 2015 | 15 | Blu- ray/ DVD
Director Yorgos Lanthimos
Cast Colin Farrell, Rachel Weisz,
Jessica Barden, Olivia Colman
Remember when people with little in common fell in love? The rise of online dating’s compatibility algorithms means it’s an increasingly uncommon phenomenon. That’s just one aspect of modern romance skewered by Yorgos Lanthimos’s English- language debut.
In the same absurdist vein as the Greek director’s Dogtooth and Alps, it’s set in a near future – or perhaps an alternate reality – where not being coupled- up is even more of a social crime than it is now. Singletons are given 45 days in a hotel to fall in love – which basically means finding someone with whom you share a defining characteristic, be it a limp or a love of maths. Fail, and you’re transformed into the animal of your choice. The titular crustacean is the pick of David ( a paunchy, moustachioed Colin Farrell).
A deadpan surrealist allegory with moments of jet- black comedy ( one involves a dog being kicked to death) it’s a witty exercise, whose bleak, Bunuelian satire of the lengths we’ll go to to be with someone is cleverly worked through. But while the cast are excellent and the deliberately flat, affectless performances do fit, their alienating effect makes this is a film that impresses intellectually, but inspires no emotion.
Extras Behind- the- scenes piece; trailer. Ian Berriman
Fancy staying at the hotel featured in the film? It’s the Parknasilla Resort near Sneem, County Kerry, Ireland.