"One day, as he was playing golf, he thought that it is more difficult to pretend that you do have feelings when you don't than to pretend you don't have feelings when you do."
Too often people place their value in this world on their relationships with others. Friends, family, coworkers, and most commonly, significant others. Everyone has a friend out there who isn't whole or "complete" unless they have someone to cling to. Whether it's a psychological need to be loved and adored, or a horrific fear of loneliness, people jump through some crazy hoops to make sure they're not alone.
The Lobster is a film commenting on society's perpetual need to feel complete through a significant other. In The Lobster we meet David, a middle aged man who arrives at The Hotel after his wife left him for another man. Through conversation and context, we find out that single people are sent to this Hotel to find a partner in order to be allowed back into society. If they fail to meet someone in the allowed time frame of their stay, they are turned into an animal of their choosing.
The film is definitely worth a watch. The amount of suffering and sacrifices a person is willing to go through in order to not be forever alone is astounding. There are some quirky moments. Some funny and absurd aspects to the film that gives it a certain charm. The narration throughout is interesting. On one hand it's insightful and charming but with the twist of a comma vulgar sexual scenarios are injected, but one can argue that it adds to the black comedy of the film. But overall this particular piece of cinema lacks the plot that could give the invertebrate a well needed spine of structure.
For starters, it would have been nice to see what this dystopian society actually looked like in more depth. How did this law come about? Why does it matter to society that a person is in a relationship with someone? Why has the world decided to place so much value on their relationship with another human being, instead of what they accomplish on their own?
The character development wasn't there either. You never really got a firm grasp on any of them. Then again, that was probably on purpose. The world of this film is so shallow, therefore so are the characters. That being said, moments that were supposed to be climactic fell flat. Not in a sense of style or shooting, but the story itself fell flat in some areas. When expecting a confrontation the audience is greeted with a lack of action and tension. The build was all for naught. Most of the exciting scenes, in both plot and character development, happen in the middle of the film. It's understandable that no one wants their film to drag in the middle but when that leaves the story lacking in the third act, maybe you need to go back to the drawing board for a quick rewrite.
Overall it's a decent watch. Just don't expect anything amazing to come from it. Like the creature itself, The Lobster is best enjoyed with a white wine and maybe boiling the film alive after the credits.
Butter won't hurt either.