It’s been about six months since I’ve seen “The Lobster,” a movie that came out in May by director Yorgos Lanthimos. When watching it in theaters, I felt confused trying to piece everything together and what exactly the film meant; for a while afterward, I was stuck deciding how exactly to feel about it all. What I quickly found out was it took a second and third time viewing it to really form concrete thoughts on what this movie means, and how special it is.
“The Lobster” features David, played by Colin Farrell, who’s wife has left him for someone else. In this world, single people cannot exist; if a partner dies or leaves, the newly-single person is taken to a hotel where they are given 45 days to find love or they get turned into an animal and put into the woods. This is where the film gets its title from; David wants to become a lobster. However, finding love proves hard for David; in this hotel, people find each other seemingly based on shallow attributes that make up defining characteristics (i.e. David’s nearsighted). Characteristics mean everything in finding a potential match; for example, a friend David makes who is referred to as Limping Man is told there’s another woman with a limp. However, because she got it from an injury that’ll heal, that makes her unsuitable. The people in the hotel also go into the forest to hunt “Loners”—people who rebel against the society and are fugitives of the law—in order to get an extended time on their 45 days.
Limping Man forces himself to get nosebleeds via smashing his head on the wall, inspiring David to fake his personality and traits as well to date Heartless Woman. In order to be with her, David has to pretend to be a sociopath. When he learns he can’t live that way, David joins the loners, and falls involve with a woman who’s also nearsighted. The loners set up a rule that’s the antithesis of the hotel; David can’t fall in love with anyone in this group. However, he continues this relationship with the woman and subjects both of them to the consequences. The outcome of the consequence leaves David at a crossroads between choosing to change himself again or to let things fall as they may.
While watching this film a second time, I felt like I understood this movie more than I had six months ago. This film is about society’s pressure about love. In the film, David is forced to go through the motions and find someone to love or else he’s just a worthless animal. In some cases like Limping Man and David, the pressure to change themselves is strong in the name of love, even resorting to self-harm at times. The question of what happens when couples start fighting comes up in the film, too; the answer is to have children, because children stop the arguments. When David sees Limping Man post-marriage, he is given a child right away.
David copies Limping Man and tries to be with Heartless Woman, but he realizes how soul-sucking and harmful it is to be with someone you’re not compatible with. This makes him go against society and join the loner group, where he’s free from the pressures of falling in love. He naturally falls into a relationship with Nearsighted Woman, and it’s plain to see they do care about each other. He makes an enemy out of Loner Leader, who is against their relationship. She changes Nearsighted Woman and takes away what David and her had in common; he realizes that without their common attribute, he’s not that interested in her, but continues to make it work.
This film raises the question of society and love, and asks the audience this question: can love really exist in the face of societal pressure? We as a society constantly push the need to feel complete by having a partner that we don’t focus enough on ourselves as people. Society pushes people to live a certain straight-lined path while shunning the unconventional. What is life and love worth without a partner? “The Lobster” makes the argument that love is possible and love can appear naturally, but only if society’s pressure is absent from it.
