Flat-footed satire; Farrell does his best despite this bleak sci-fi black comedy's 'attempts'

Rating: 4/10 (31 May 2016)

THE LOBSTER (2016) ** Colin Farrell, Rachel Weisz, Ben Whishaw, John C. Reilly, Ashley Jensen, Angeliki Papoulia, Lea Seydoux, Michael Smiley, Olivia Colman, Garry Mountaine, Ariane Labed, Jessica Barden, EmmaEdel O'Shea. Flat-footed satire of a totalitarian, dystopic society set in the near future where those who are not coupled are given 45 days to find a significant other or face the fate of being 'reassigned' as an animal. Farrell is the best thing about this oddball black comedy as a sad sack whose life is in a downward spiral at the spa from hell attempting to find a mate or find his fate. While filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos - who co-wrote with Efthymis Filippou - has made the attempt of an Orwellian tale of despair (and succeeded in alienating his audience) the film itself is one hot mess and misfire. Not even as a sci-fi parable of say a Twilight Zone or X-File or even a black comedy say like Monty Python. Just dreadful.