The Lobster
Colin Farrell plays a chubby singleton who is shipped off to a resort to find a partner. It's the 'near future' aka tomorrow and everyone is required to have a partner. At the resort, if you can't find a partner then you get turned into the animal of your choice. Farrell has chosen a lobster as they live to 100 and have blue blood like the upper class. The atmosphere at the hotel is weird to say the least with some unusual rules including having your hand burned in a toaster for masturbation. After a terrible attempt at a relationship with a psychopath fails, Farrell cheeses it into the woods to live with the 'loners' people hunted by the residents of the hotel who have sworn off relationships and have equally draconian rules about anyone who deviates from the rules. This causes problems when he falls for one of the loners, played by Rachel Weisz.
As weird as it sounds the experience of actually watching the film is stranger. The performances all appear deliberately stilted and forced. The dialogue is at times frank and bizarre. The tone feels more bleak than whimsical and just when you are enjoying it as a strange comedy the film throws in something disturbing. Its probably going to rub some people the wrong way but I really enjoyed this. I must admit I also enjoyed the directors previous film Dogtooth as well. Its worth checking out before you buy it if possible but its a really great little film.
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