Reviewing 'The Lobster' by Yorgos Lanthimos: Stop Being Single, Or Become a Lobster

The Lobster is a strange, independent film with a very unique dystopian setting: single people must find a partner within 45 days or they will be transformed into the animal of their choice.

This dystopian world is weird, it's intrusive, and it is lacking basic humanity. People are more manipulative as they lie in order to get into a relationship they don't want, with a person they do not care about. I mean, it is either that, or accept your fate and become an animal.

The film follows David (old man Colin Farrell), a now single man now that his wife has left him for another man. He is sent to the hotel for single people, where they are forced to integrate with one another in various activities featuring propaganda, in hopes of triggering a little romance and getting those single people back into long-lasting relationships. David's choice of animal if he fails to find a partner is a lobster, because they have long lifespans and he loves the sea.

One of the activities the single people must participate in is the hunting of 'loners', people that have rejected relationships and live together in the woods, but frequently venture into the city under the disguise of partners. Loners are hunted down with tranquilliser guns, taken back to the hotel, and transformed into their previously chosen animal. Those who manage to capture loners receive additional days at the hotel to find a partner.

The Lobster is artistic, yet injects a little dark humour into the film, and it's clear that the humour is there to somewhat break the ice and loosen the complete strangeness of its narrative and world. The world is dark, so the humour the characters know is dark.

David is a simple man; he's relatively introverted and clearly suffering emotionally from the fact that his love has left him, and has subjected him to this embarrassing life of forced romance. But he's smart. He's searching for a way out of this. He's going to become a loner.