SERIOUS SPOILERS, BUT THEY ARE NECESSARY IN THE DISCUSSION OF THE FILM. THIS IS MORE AN ANALYTICAL ARTICLE/REVIEW. Love in all it’s treacherous trickery. How can one determine if it’s real or not? That is to put it simply the whole entire point of The Lobster. Its overarching goals are almost completely described by a scene in which a man is asked to shoot his wife. He finds no other option seeing how the rules of the threateners dictate that he cannot love. Eventually, he does pull the trigger. His sector of society forced his love, and that was the only thing doing so. This may sound difficult, but let me explain. The “normal” society is based on the idea that having a partner will make everything better; forcing people over a certain age to stay in a hotel over the course of forty-five days to find a partner. Once time is up the person is turned into an animal. A society of loaners lives in the woods and forces its members to stay away from anything resembling love. Human nature is caught in between. The hilarity of The Lobster comes in both a sense of overwhelming joy and the absurdity that both sides of love have to offer. The hotel at first seems funny, and even as the horrors of the limitations placed on guests and the fear of being turned into an animal onsets the absolute craziness of the situation only serves to be hilarious. Until it’s not. The purpose of a story built in a society different than our own comes from the way characters interact with it, and how that makes us feel. The Lobster’s purpose seems grounded in making us feel exactly the way the characters feel in the world that they inhabit, forever stuck between two ideals that they cannot choose. Truthfully that’s just not the way the world seems to work. The structure of the film is completely based on these described emotions. That’s where the aforementioned overwhelming joy comes from. There are only three characters in The Lobster that ever feel love, and only one of them is a lead. The first is a woman with blonde hair at the hotel. She’s always next to an auburn haired girl who eventually finds a partner (Ben Wishaw is excellent as him), and in the narration that plagues the first act of the film is immediately tied to her. It makes one wonder whether or not these two feel something for each other. When the auburn girl is described she’s always attached to the idea of “who was here with her best friend.” Later, the auburn girl reads a letter to the blonde haired woman on the blonde woman’s last day before conversion into an animal. The letter is lush and intimate, bringing the emotions that the audience has been feeling for the two to the surface of the film. It allows you to stare into the eyes of real love, and experience the untapped joy in it...but the film ends it. The blonde woman grows upset and slaps her friend. She stares at her with cold eyes as she realizes that the love she feels for her is only going to be brought down by the society around them. The blonde haired woman’s story only accentuates the way the film gets us into the mind space of the characters. The disappointment you feel in the deflation of the scene….the frustration. This is how the characters of this society feel every day. They feel in constant suspense of their emotions getting the better of them and the societal implications that could have. Many of the scenarios the film has to offer play this way. First a setup, then an overwhelming sense of joy or relief and then the dashing of that against the rocks. Catharsis through frustration, and suspense ever building. This is a film that believes real love exists, but it also believes that the society can corrupt us into false loves, or lead us away from it. Love in all it’s treacherous trickery. How does one determine if it is real or not? The film stars Colin Farrell in a beautiful character role that he inhabits scarily well. Farrell’s last great role was In Bruges, so it’s a treat to see him back in a role that allows him to flex the true acting chops he has. The same goes for Rachel Weisz, as she seems to have dropped into lesser fare since her Oscar-winning performance in The Constant Gardener. The world mechanics are sold on the performances, and each actor helps create the feeling of frustration and desperation. The camerawork and direction do this as well. The film is all into pushing its emotion, even to the point of employing traditionally bad cinematography techniques to manipulate the audience. As a reader you might be wonder what in the hell all of that above means? I hope to leave you with the thought that it was at least interesting though. That way you’ll go see the movie. I give The Lobster a 9 out of 10.
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December 2017
CategoriesAuthorHello welcome to FilmAnalyst. My name is Stephen Tronicek, and I really like movies. This is a way to get my opinions out to people. Thank you for visiting. |