‘The Lobster’
Reading Time: 2 minutes
Browsing through the latest list of films available through ‘SBS on demand’, I came across ‘The Lobster’ a 2015 dystopian black-comedy/drama set in the near future.
The main storyline is that the laws of our future, but visually contemporary, city, require all single people to be hunted down and taken to ‘the hotel’ where they’re detained with other singles and given 45 days to find and form a romantic partnership with a partner with whom they have something significant in common. If they fail to do so, they are turned into an animal.
It’s not so much the story, but the manner in which the film tells the story, that makes this film unique, enjoyable and most memorable. The futuristic aspect of the film is not visual or audible as the characters look and dress in a contemporary manner, and the music is contemporary largely glorious classical. It is the behaviour and the values expressed and acted out by the characters that makes the film other-worldly. This aspect accounts for much of the black comedy and the film’s many unexpected twists and turns.
The slower pace of this film enables it to present a visual feast of natural and constructed scenery. Notably, it achieves this without lingering seemingly forever on unrelated scenery or objects, the way many European Arthouse films do.
The characters are fascinating and brilliantly portrayed by an excellent ‘A’ class cast, led by by an almost unrecognisable Colin Farrell, Rachel Weisz, Lea Seydoux, Ben Whishaw and Olivia Colman.
This film is not aimed at sci-fi fans, but rather at film goers who appreciate dark art-house cinema. If you’re in the right mood, you’re likely to be in for a treat.
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