Confused and confusing

Rating: 2/10 (7 May 2016)

The movie begins quite intelligibly, though any intelligent viewer will soon begin to wonder how the basic directive is to be enforced without substantial armed force. As the film moves out of the hotel into the world outside, however, it becomes ever more confused and confusing.
The director seems to be making a fundamentally misanthropic statement: human relationships of love are either not possible or not permitted. I'm by no means sure that this is the director's intention or concept, however. The film reminds me of more than one opera I have seen on German stages, where the director dresses up an obscure concept with all kinds of strange touches whose purpose seems to be to mystify the audience. Some of the performances in this film are good, but as a whole "The Lobster" wastes those performances in the service of a seriously confused premise.