As I settled into the theatre seats I really wasn’t sure what to expect from the film I was about to see, intriguingly entitled The Lobster. I had gathered from the trailer that it was a quirky film to say the least. The plot follows characters set in a dystopian future where finding a romantic partner is a matter of life and death. Single people, charmingly referred to as loners in the film, are forced to go to a hotel where they are given 45 days to find a partner. The catch? If they fail to find a partner within this time they are killed and turned into an animal of their choice. Okay then …
You can understand, therefore, my mixture of excitement and apprehension as the opening credits rolled onto the screen. I had no idea what I was about to see … and I certainly couldn’t have guessed. Throughout the film we witness a host of bizarre incidents and characters, including a young blonde-haired woman who is transformed into a horse with a suspiciously familiar-looking blonde mane and a man who routinely bangs his head against tables and walls in an attempt to induce nose bleeds as a strategy of connecting with his perfect match at the hotel.
So, what was my opinion on this bizarre piece of work ? I loved every second of it. I found it funny, witty and most of all thought-provoking. This was a film not made purely to entertain but to incite reflection. As I stood up to leave the cinema, still open-mouthed at the outstanding work of art I had just witnessed, I looked around to engage with my fellow spectators and remarked people shaking their heads and muttering in disgruntled tones. It seemed that not everyone had found The Lobster to be quite the masterpiece that I had. Which led me to another level of reflection on the film: why was this? Was it perhaps because a cinema largely full of French people could not connect to this quirky, British flick, or was it perhaps a language fault? Had the unique charm of the film been lost in translation? In any case The Lobster is certainly a film which leaves questions lingering in the mind long after its final quirk and, for that reason alone, it thoroughly merits a watch.
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What’s the weirdest film you’ve ever seen and why?
