The Lobster
ロブスター
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
Singles have 45 days to find a partner or be turned into an animal; the sharpest satire of konkatsu ever made outside Japan.
David's wife has left him for another man, and in his world single people are not allowed to stay single. He is taken to a hotel with his brother Bob, who is now a dog. Guests have forty-five days to find a partner, or they will be turned into an animal of their choosing. David chooses a lobster. Masturbation is forbidden, but a maid sexually stimulates the guests as routine; there are dances and presentations extolling couples. Guests earn an extra day for every loner they capture in the woods. Partners are matched by a shared defining trait: a limp, a lisp, a tendency to nosebleeds.
David befriends John, who limps, and Robert, who lisps. John wins a woman who suffers from nosebleeds by faking the same condition. David decides to court the most heartless woman in the hotel, and pretends to enjoy the suffering of a guest who has tried to take her own life. The heartless woman pretends to choke; when he does nothing to help, she decides they are a match, and they move to the couples' suite. Then she kills Bob. When David weeps, she declares their relationship a lie and tries to drag him to the manager for punishment. With help from a maid who is secretly working for the loners, he sedates her, has her turned into an animal and escapes to the woods.
The loners forbid romance and punish it cruelly. There David falls in love with a short-sighted woman, and they invent a private sign language. On missions to the city, posing as a couple, they are happy, and they plan to leave. The loner leader reads the woman's diary, takes her to the city for what is said to be an eye operation and has her blinded instead. When the woman attacks the leader, the leader shields herself with the maid, who dies. David and the woman search for something else they share and find nothing. David leaves the leader tied up in an open grave for the wild dogs and escapes with the woman to the city. In a restaurant he goes to the lavatory to blind himself, so that they will match. The film ends before it shows whether he does.
Starring
Colin Farrellas David
A mild man whose wife has left him, sent to the hotel with forty-five days to find a new partner or become a lobster.
David’s story
David arrives at the hotel with his brother Bob, now a dog, and chooses to become a lobster. To win the most heartless woman there, he feigns pleasure at the suffering of a guest who has tried to take her own life, and does nothing when the woman fakes choking. She kills Bob and, when he weeps, tries to have him punished; with a maid's help he has her turned into an animal and flees to the woods. Among loners who forbid romance, he falls for a short-sighted woman. When the leader has her blinded, they find nothing else they share. He leaves the leader tied in an open grave for the wild dogs and takes the woman to the city, where he goes to a restaurant lavatory to blind himself. The film ends before it shows whether he does.
Rachel Weiszas Short Sighted Woman
A loner in the woods and the film's narrator, who falls in love with David because they share short sight.
Short Sighted Woman’s story
The short-sighted woman narrates David's story and lives in the woods with the loners, whose leader punishes romance. When David arrives from the hotel, she falls in love with him, and they invent a private sign language. On missions to the city, where they must pose as a couple, they are happy, and they plan to leave together; she writes it in her diary. The leader reads it, takes her to the city for what is said to be an operation on her eyes and has her blinded instead. She attacks the leader, who shields herself with the maid, and the maid dies. With David she searches for something else they share and finds nothing. He takes her to the city, and she is left waiting at a restaurant table while he goes to the lavatory to blind himself.
Léa Seydouxas Loner Leader
The cold leader of the loners in the woods, who punishes any romance among her followers.
Olivia Colmanas Hotel Manager
The brisk manager who enforces the hotel's rules and rituals and oversees the transformations.
Ben Whishawas John, Limping Man
A guest with a limp who fakes nosebleeds to win a partner.
Angeliki Papouliaas Heartless Woman
The hotel guest who has captured the most loners, and who chooses David because he seems as cold as she is.
Why it matters
The Lobster takes the pressure to be in a couple and makes it literal: a single person who fails to pair off within forty-five days is turned into an animal. Yorgos Lanthimos's first English-language film won the Jury Prize at Cannes in 2015, and its satire cuts both ways. The hotel reduces love to matching one shared trait, a limp or a nosebleed, while the loners in the woods, who reject the hotel, enforce solitude with the same cruelty. Neither side lets anyone simply choose. The deadpan manner makes it funny; the ending makes it painful, asking what a man who has at last found love is prepared to give up to keep it. The question it leaves is the price of fitting in: how much of a self a couple may keep, and how much it demands be cut away.