The Lobster (2016)

The Lobster (R)

"Love is Blind"

A man, recently divorced, and his dog, recently his brother, are sent to a coastal hideaway resort where the inmates must find love or be themselves turned into animals in director Giorgos Lanthimos' (Dog Tooth) newest oddity, The Lobster.

Colin Ferrell (In Bruges) plays the saggy down trodden man forced to look for love (in all the wrong places), and does it without his normal bravado and grimace to his character.  He meets all kinds of interesting fellow love seekers (the most likeable being A-list character actor John C. Reilly as a lisping animal bound hopeless case), for it is the Universe, and not just the people inhabiting it, that makes this film so fascinating.

Whether to take it literally or figuratively, a world that not only looks down socially upon a single uncoupled person but oppresses them and forces them into relationships (via a Nazi-like Police force asking for papers) or be animialified is fantastically unique!  Then to expound on that Universe, show quick insights into how this system works (the singles who rebel are hunted, but are themselves revolutionaries who reject all human copulation and actively attempt to break up the couplehoods) is rich and fulfilling.  Then add friendships, children and society to that mix and you have something to talk about.

Go into this movie knowing as little as you can, let it tell it's story organically (it is all there if you let it talk and you listen), enjoy the harrowing little moments of terror and pain, embrace the surrealist reality, the absurdist gravitas and the moral ambiguity.  After all, all's fair in war and love, especially if love can turn you into a shellfish.

8 Dead Rabbits of Love out of 10 (GREAT)