Ed's Review Dot Com

Film4, Irish Film Board, Eurimages,

Colin Farrell, Jessica Barden, Rachel Weisz, Olivia Colman, Ashley Jensen, Ariane Labed, Aggeliki Papoulia, John C. Reilly, Léa Seydoux, Michael Smiley, Ben Whishaw

This allegorical tale tells of a world where marriage is mandatory. Those who are single or who become single are put in a hotel and give 45 days to find a suitable mate. This is not easy because the mate must be suitable meaning you must have the same interests, problems, disabilities, etc. David (Colin Farrell) is a kind and very gentle man whose wife just up and informed him she doesn’t love him anymore, so he arrives at the hotel looking for a mate. If after 45 days you don’t have one, then you must choose which animal you wish to be transformed into for the rest of your days. David chooses a lobster as he loves the sea and figured that’s a good choice.

This is a very, very strange movie. There are actually several different tales, when you come down to it, but none of this makes any sense at all. Yet somehow on a deeply oblique plane, it kind of does. This is not meant to be taken literal in the least. But it’s a really good look into the human condition, and in a hilarious way, points out to us what our weaknesses are. People require some kind of regimen. We need order and a plan or purpose, and need some kind of organization to help us make sense out of the world. After David left the hotel, a new world order enslaves him, and I’m not sure it’s any better than the one he left. I don’t think it’s supposed to be. This film is one of those polarizing movies that is a 5 star masterpiece to some folks who like the crazy storyline that doesn’t make any sense at all, and there are the 0 stars folks who just don’t get it think it’s a total waste of time. I don’t agree with either of these camps, and I hope I’m being fair to the film. It’s a very bizarre concept for a film, but surprisingly I see a lot of Hunger Games and Harry Potter in this film, but in a total unique setting. I did think a lot about it, and I did enjoy it. It was really that funny, nor was it that serious, but right in the middle somewhere. There were funny lines, and some very sad moments. One scene in particular had a lot of people turning it off, or so they claim. I sat through this, and was entertained, and it did make me ponder a lot which I like, but on the other hand, it is very slow and quite absurd, so keep that in mind. I found in in the middle range of the star scale.

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