an analysis of the recent black comedy The Lobster

1. THE LOBSTER: A REVIEW
The movie The Lobster is a 2016 black comedy staring a Colin Farrell, Rachel
Weisz, Olivia Coleman etcetera and is a story about a dystopian future of which it
is mandatory to find “love” or you get morphed into the animal of your choosing.
THE ACTING
There isn’t a performance in this movie that fell short of great as everyone gave a
funny, intriguing and disturbing performance, Collin Farrell does a good job at
portraying a man who’s down on his luck and fed up of life due to his monotone
voice, seemingly awkward dialogue and unflinching jolted movements, almost like
he’s a robot who is trying to learn how to act human but can’t quite figure it out.
Rachel Weisz also creates a performance just as good with her equally depressing
portrayal and narration with perfect timing for maximum comedic impact and the
love and raw emotion they share together is greatly juxtaposed by the rest of the
cast, whether it be from the stern Olivia Coleman, the desperate Ben Whishaw or
John C Reilly as a innocent man you can’t help but feel sorry for.
THEMES
The movies colour pallete stays pale, bold and lifeless to mimic the just
depressing situation and circumstances that David (Colin Farrell) and a plethora
of other characters get into.
This is also carried on through the camera work that is designed to be lifeless and
uninteresting to follow the depressing chain linked by to colour pallete and
the…uhh….what it is it..oh yeah THE ENTIRE MOVIE, this is done through static
shots that only get interrupted by scenes of action that filmed in Slow Motion to
keep this calm unchanging cycle film is trying to show as no matter the place,
David can’t escape this depressing cycle created by love and more importantly
the standards of love held by society.
Love in this movie is questioned, challenged and explored as much as its
relationship with society with a couple of key subthemes explored throughout the
118 minute run time.

2. love is seen from three key perspectives, those who force it upon others,
those who despise it and those who let love blossom naturally as those
who force it and perpetuate love to be the gold standard to happiness often
result in applying not only pressure on a number of characters in the movie
but also stress as they try to find a happiness and force it to blossom and
ultimately go to extremes to achieve a happiness that doesn’t exist that
leaves them unhappy and disappointed. This is meant to be a reflection of
society and the constant oversaturation and promotion of love and the
unfair depictions and standards perpetuated by the media. Because in life
its fine to not be married at 20 something but 40-50 something then if not
you might as well be treated like a animal and nothing more, the same way
the characters get turned into animals if they do not find love, leading to
people only searching for love just for pure necessity rather than desire
which results in leaving them to live with the lie that they are “in love”
And what happens when characters are met with the truth in the movie?
They become violent and in denial to keep the lie alive as it’s what they’re
expected to do.
Furthermore there is also a “guide” to love that is used to create an
artificial substitute to the real thing with ideas such as people who
possess similar character traits like lisps, a limp or something else will
naturally possess a love for each other and in this way society focuses on
aesthetic features rather than the substance of their character which is
mirrored by the fact no character other than David has a name and in
essence humanity and every character in defined through clear traits with
no ambiguity whatsoever, for example David ask to be labelled as bisexual
and for his shoes to labelled as half sizes but is denied both time with
nonsensical reasons, almost like they are trying to deny that that goes
against status quo.
Age is also given an analysis in the movie as a character played by Ashley
Jensen is continuously looked over for her younger counterparts resulting
her trying to find peace in death
But age does not end their, the music the characters listen too reflect
certain values of certain times.
For example the depressive love despising people listen to Electronic
music and in a sense are mimicking that of teens while those who force
love upon other listen to Classical older music as to show the difference of
beliefs of the times while making love as a timeless constant.

3. On the other hand those who despise it are treated in the same regard as
their opposition as they’re both sides of the same coin and both have
radical solutions to the same problem which is rather than force love upon
people they force loveless relationships in a spiteful and pessimistic way
which is shown through the performance of Lea Seydoux with her
meaningless approach to life and vengeful approach to the love
consummated by David and Rachel Weisz’ character which results in
Rachel Weisz’ character being blinded.
And finally there is the love felt by David and Rachel Weisz that is created
through natural chemistry and other reasons that society cannot clearly
define and because of this natural approach to love they are able to live
happily, or not?
As despite their love they cannot escape societies standards and are stuck
in a cycle of depression as even at the end of the movie when they have
both found love David and Rachel both feel that in order for their love to
work they both have to be blind and the movie leaves us with the message
of the strength of society and its messages.