Lost Opportunity to Explore a Brilliant Idea

Rating: 6/10 (26 January 2019)

I totally understand the artistic value of this film. I loved the idea behind it as well as the visual and score. I loved noticing that whenever we'd see people in the woods we'd also see a variety amount of animals walking behind them, indicating that many of those animals were formally people who weren't able to find their partner. I thought that was a pretty decent sight gag. I also thought the classical music during certain scenes was a nice touch; whenever it'd intensify or slow down I felt as though I was feeling the emotions of the characters on screen unravel. The fact that the majority of the music was repetitive was quite funny which I'm assuming is what they were aiming for. The shading/lighting of the film was beautiful as well, and the acting was quite good.
However, as far as the plot itself, it sort of felt...dull in most cases. In the beginning, it's very clear what the motivation was. You must find a partner within 45 days otherwise you will become an animal of your choosing. As the film went on, you begin to learn that there are "loners", who are people that refuse to become an animal after their 45 days were up (or people who decided to escape the hotel). Up until that point, I thought the movie was going brilliantly. It wasn't until David ended up being part of the loners did I feel like the writers were having a bit of a challenge on where they wanted the movie to end. As a viewer, I assumed that either way it went, we'd come to find that someone would be an animal or in love. And because of how heavily they pushed the rule of "you will be an animal if you don't find love", I began to believe that we'd ultimately end up with a sad ending where David becomes a lobster. Frankly, I would much rather prefer a bittersweet ending like that rather than what we got. It left me wondering...what was the point of having people turn into animals in the first place? I really believe that this idea would've been absolutely perfect had they done a better job at it.
Towards the end of the movie, we are left with a cliffhanger on whether or not David blinded himself for the woman who became blind after breaking the Loners' rule. It left me completely unsatisfied. Not only was I expecting a more psychological twist, but now I was faced with a question from the director: What do you think he did? The answer is simply...I don't know. I would like to think that perhaps he chose not to do it and instead went back to the hotel where he decides to become the lobster he mentioned earlier because it seemed too important to him for the ending to be left the way it did. If they'd explored that idea more, I think I would've enjoyed it better. Overall, I do recommend this film. It's not a complete waste of time. Its aesthetic is to be boring and stiff to portray the way David feels throughout it, which I find interesting. There are probably points that I missed or something that completely went over my head with this movie, and for that purpose being, I see no reason why anyone shouldn't watch this film.