The Lobster Movie Review

Penny Lai

    Can you imagine a dichotomous world with only black/white, right/wrong, single/in a relationship? The Lobster (2015), a movie directed by the Greek director, Yorgos Lanthimos, brings you to a dystopian future where you will be, when without a partner, turned into a wild animal of your choice and released to a corresponding habitat. It sounds absurd, but when viewers looks into the meaning behind it all, it is actually a reflection of people in love. How do we love? How should we date? How can we make a relationship last? These are problems everyone can relate to. Viewers can look deeper into the movie from two angles: that of the society and that of someone who tries to find love.

  In the movie, everyone is forced to have a partner. Single people would be put into a luxurious resort and are asked to find a partner with a mutual characteristic or interest. They will have 45 days to achieve the quest; extras days can be earned by hunting single escapists in the woods. There are no single men living happily in that world. They are either turned into animals or dead. It is like a satire of the world we are living in now. People are expected to have someone to be with romantically for their lives. We do not believe in the idea of “single men can be happy too.” In fact, we often go after the idea of “love” so much that we often fantasize it in an unrealistic way and we accordingly mock or sympathize those who are alone. There should not be a fixed image of how love should be like because each individual has a different mindset and feelings. People often wait and seek love so desperately that they do not care who they are in love with. Is it true love when we love for the sake of love? Or, is it true love when we love someone unconditionally? 

  In the world of love, we can see different types of people. In the movie, viewers can relate to a classic type of lovers easily, because some point in everyone’s life, we have all done it. A crippled guy in the resort was so desperately to find love that he is willing to hurt himself on the nose till it bleeds just to match with a girl whose nose bleeds a lot. When the protagonist goes to tell the nose bleeding girl that the crippled guy is lying to her, she gets angry and slaps the protagonist on the face. Because she knew, but it was a lie that they did not want to bust, for the sake of love. How often do people hurt or change themselves just to stay with someone? And how often do people compromise one another out of consideration for the better good? Everyone can somewhat relate to that. 

The background setting of the movie reflects how the society is putting all the pressure on single people. It is almost like a sin to be alone. Perhaps that is also why the characters all speak emotionlessly like robots, even after they found their “love of the life.” The ability to love freely is one of the most important things in this world. When people are forced to love by intangible pressures, “love” losses its beauty.