I’m eager to watch the new miniseries that is being released on streaming this week, The Penguin, which is a spin off of the 2022 film The Batman (a superhero film I adore and which I will definitely discuss here in the future). The new show stars Colin Farrell as the titular Batman villain, and my admiration for his portrayal of the character in 2022 plus my excitement to see the new show inspired me to think about my favorite performance of his. He was indeed amazing as the Penguin, but the role of his that I love the most, based on the films I’ve seen him in (which by no means cover his full filmography), is David, the hapless and pathetic but endearing everyman protagonist of The Lobster.
Though The Lobster (directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, screenplay by Lanthimos and Efthimis Filippou) came to theaters in 2015, I didn’t watch it until several years later, when it was assigned as part of a lesson in a creative writing class. I’m so grateful that my professor assigned the movie, and I regret that I hadn’t watched it sooner. It’s one of the most surprising, unpredictable, and hilarious movies I’ve ever seen.
The premise is absurd from the get-go; the characters live in a world in which people who are single for 45 days are transformed into animals. Single people are forced to go to a hotel where they have to meet other single people and form relationships, thereby escaping their terrible fates.
When we viewers first see David, we can tell he’s doomed. He’s quiet and uninteresting. Of course, snap judgments are unfair and ignore the inner depths of people, the infinite layers and complexities they possess. Sadly, though, because of the terrible world he lives in, snap judgments and first impressions are all he has. How can anyone get to know someone in a meaningful way in 45 days?
We know David’s situation is dire, but we need to see what happens. Plus, we’re endeared to him due to the fact that, when he’s introduced, he’s with his brother, who has absurdly (but also, if we think about it, horrifically) been turned into a dog.
The setting of the hotel is brilliant and also adds to the absurdity of the film’s situations. There’s an intrinsic essence of anonymity and ephemerality in a hotel; people are only passing through, and because they are away from their origins and destinations, they can be whoever they want to be. They can try on different personalities, for a little while. Thus, while resonating with the themes of the film, the setting is also fertile ground for humor. There’s something a little awkward about hotel activities that bring strangers together. Ideally, people overcome the initial awkwardness and enjoy each other’s company. Yet, the world of this film is anything but ideal.
A shining example of awkward humor is a monologue by a man, played by Ben Whishaw, during an event in which the people at the hotel are sharing things about themselves. The man tells a long story about how his mom had been transformed into a wolf, after which he went looking for her. He heard that she had been put in a zoo, and he found a group of wolves at the zoo. Because he missed her so much and badly wanted a hug, one day he went over the fence and was attacked by the wolves.
Ben Whishaw plays the scene with dead seriousness, making his character lack any recognition that the desire to hug a wolf is just stupid. The performances throughout the film make the humor hit so hard. Everyone plays the scenes seriously, and the no-nonsense attitude juxtaposes with the ridiculous details to cause my gut to burst into laughter. Incongruity is an excellent technique for building a joke, and this film is filled with incongruities.
The later situations escalate in absurdity. Many of the people at the hotel try to force connections based on superficial details. A woman has frequent nosebleeds, and the man who had tried to hug wolves bashes his face against hard surfaces to make his nose bleed in order for him to point to a commonality they share.
Relationships require difficulty, endurance, sometimes pain; this, however, is bonkers.
David tries to force a connection with a woman who lacks any compassion or care. She is played with perfect iciness by Angeliki Papoulia. The woman constantly tests David to make sure he’s as cold as she is. Her ultimate test is killing David’s brother. And here, I was so horrified that I could only laugh as David tried to stifle his tears.
A laugh, for me, can be a way to release tension, to acknowledge absurdity, but it can also be a way to cope. Sometimes, something is so terrible and dark, I have no other form of recourse but laughter. Sometimes, laughter holds off the tears of sorrow.
The humor of the film exists in response to its deep tragedy. How tragic it is, for a mother to be taken away from her son, who of course becomes desperate to find her. How horrible it is, for people to be forced by their society to do things they don’t want to do. How painful it is, for people to engage in painful methods of deception because they’re desperate.
The absurdity and tragedy of the film continue from here. David escapes the hotel and joins a group of people who are adamant about remaining single. These people live in the woods and have an uncompromising leader, played by Léa Seydoux in an amazing performance. The leader commands respect. She’s someone you don’t want to cross.
Sadly, David does not find respite in the woods.
The people there are zealous about not fostering romantic relationships, so much so that they brutally punish anyone who does.
Therefore, when David gets along with a woman in the woods, played by Rachel Weisz, we know devastation is imminent. The chemistry the two have is sweet and wholesome, and their secret meetings are charged with yearning and fear.
Connecting back to the film’s dark humor, David believes the heart of their compatibility is that the woman is short sighted like he is. As sad as this is, I found myself laughing uncontrollably when David becomes jealous of another man in the woods who wears glasses, whom he beats up well crying in an accusatory manner, “Are you short sighted?”
Furthermore, though the people in the woods are intimidating, they also act as absurdly as the people in the hotel do. A prime example: they have silent dance parties where no one can dance together, an ultimate form of communal isolation. It’s such a funny sight.
Also, there is a tragedy to the people in the woods, too. They have come from a society with extremist views on relationships, and they have developed an opposing extremist view as a result.
The film takes many surprising twists and turns before ending on a note of tragedy. The secret relationship is discovered, and the woman is blinded. She eventually escapes with David, and they decide that they will be together. However, David, because of the way he has been conditioned, believes that there is no longer any compatibility between himself and the woman he loves. Never mind the fact that they will endure risks and make sacrifices for each other, just as they have already done. She is blind, and he is short sighted, so they cannot be a couple. He decides to blind himself. The final scene of the film is genuinely heartbreaking. He and the woman sit at a table at a restaurant. He observes her for one last, long time, taking in every detail of her. Then, he goes to the bathroom and positions a knife in front of his face.
The Lobster is an incredible movie. Its tone is precise: bleakly hilarious. I couldn’t stop laughing during various scenes and sequences. And, masterfully, the dark humor of the film highlights the sorrow of its themes. It’s a film about a society that restricts the ways people think and behave and that enforces these limitations through violence. It’s about people who are capable of love and connection but who are forced and conditioned to act against their better natures. The absurdity of the film is a funhouse mirror projecting back truths about the real world. Too often do society and the environment prop up hindrances on people’s flourishing. Too often do people with power force their ideologies on others. Too often are people at the mercy of forces beyond them, forces that end up ruining them.
The dark humor of the film comes from the darkness of our world.
The film’s pitch perfect tone allows it to explore these themes, and it arises from the union of direction, writing, and acting. Everything works so well together, including the amazing performances.
This is a film that I’ve been thinking about for a long time, and that I’ll continue to think about.
Excellent review of an unforgettable film!
Great narrative, 👏