Profoundly strange, but oddly engaging

Rating: 7/10 (13 August 2016)

In a somewhat skewed alternate version of somewhere in present-day Europe, David (Colin Farrell) is sent to the Hotel, where he has 45 days in which to find his match, failing which he will be transformed into the animal of his choice and set loose into the wild. Despite selecting a lobster (just in case) he initially attempts to set himself up with a woman with no kindred feeling for others, before escaping and joining a group of Loners in the woods. Unfortunately, they have their own rules which preclude him and Rachel Weisz' characters falling in love, which is exactly what happens.
It was only after watching this film that I discovered that the man behind it - Yorgos Lanthimos - was also responsible for Dogtooth, another deeply peculiar film in which the relationships between people, and their behaviour, are completely incomprehensible to anyone brought up in conventional society. In The Lobster, everybody speaks with conventional politeness and an utter absence of emotion.
The whole thing is completely bizarre, yet it is often surprisingly funny and, notwithstanding my expectation of finding it annoyingly pretentious (which it is) it also held my attention: I watched it all the way through and didn't switch it off.
I don't think I would recommend it, but it had sufficient weirdness and an odd warmth for me to quite like it. Terrific cast, too.