---
title: "The Lobster"
year: 2015
kind: "film"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/the-lobster"
fi1m_id: "the-lobster"
imdb_id: "tt3464902"
tmdb_id: 254320
wikidata_id: "Q16996794"
fi1m_score: 78
critics_score: 71
critics_reviews: 14
published: "2026-09-16"
updated: "2026-09-18T08:37:48.746900+00:00"
region: "RO"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# The Lobster (2015)

Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos · 1h 59m · Comedy, Drama, Romance

## Identity

The Lobster

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/the-lobster
- **Type:** Film
- **Fi1m ID:** the-lobster
- **IMDb ID:** tt3464902
- **TMDB ID:** 254320
- **Wikidata ID:** Q16996794
- **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3464902/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/254320, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q16996794

**Fi1m score: 78** · Critics 71 from 14 reviews

*In a sentence:* The hotel would like everyone paired off before anyone develops a preference

> *The Lobster* makes compulsory coupledom bleakly funny, with Colin Farrell giving its rules a painfully human cost. The hotel satire is sharper than what follows, but the awkward tenderness keeps us interested when the plotting slackens.

## Synopsis

In a near-future society that outlaws being single, David (Colin Farrell) checks into a hotel where residents must find a partner or be turned into animals. The Hotel Manager (Olivia Colman) oversees the process, with the Lisping Man (John C. Reilly) and the Limping Man (Ben Whishaw) among David’s fellow guests. David needs to pair up to remain human, but wanting a relationship is not enough to secure one. Inside the hotel, courtship becomes a compulsory task, carried out under rules that give the guests little room to decide what they want for themselves.

## Review

Yorgos Lanthimos takes the pressure to settle down and gives it an official penalty: find a partner or cease to be human. *The Lobster* is a good, disquieting comedy whose hotel scenes make familiar questions about our love lives sound faintly threatening. We recommend it to anyone with a taste for humour delivered without reassurance. The script, by Efthimis Filippou and Yorgos Lanthimos, makes its absurd rule easy to grasp, then watches people try to accommodate it.

Colin Farrell is crucial as David, looking so thoroughly defeated that even making conversation seems an effort. The performance has none of the charm that might let us dismiss him as a romantic lead temporarily down on his luck. We felt unexpectedly protective of him; his hesitant, flattened delivery makes the business of finding a partner seem exhausting before it has begun. He makes us notice David’s distress even when the joke works, without asking the other actors to soften their treatment of him.

Olivia Colman plays the Hotel Manager with a certainty that makes the arrangement seem almost administratively sensible. She never supplies the little wink that would give us permission to stand outside the joke. John C. Reilly’s Lisping Man and Ben Whishaw’s Limping Man belong to a society that can reduce people to a single distinguishing feature, and the names make the nastiness plain. The danger is that the supporting characters can become examples in a lecture, though the actors keep them awkward enough to seem human.

Thimios Bakatakis’s cinematography makes the hotel an uncomfortable place to look at: people sharing the same space seem stranded there. Jacqueline Abrahams’s production design gives the institutional setting a dispiriting respectability. The hotel needs to look plausible, because an obviously fantastical prison would let ordinary social expectations off too easily. Here, the surroundings help us understand why the guests might accept the rules before they question them.

Editor Yorgos Mavropsaridis gives the deadpan exchanges enough room for their discomfort to register, and the pauses are often funnier than an extra line would be. The difficulty comes when the film has to sustain that rhythm across 119 minutes. Its second half is less concentrated, with new characters arriving before the existing ideas have been worked through. Stretches begin to feel like further demonstrations of something the hotel has already established, despite the continuing commitment of the performances.

Rachel Weisz helps prevent the severity from becoming monotonous. Her performance allows a little tenderness into a film whose people have learned to discuss intimacy as though they were filling in a form. Black comedy needs some sense that its people can suffer, and here the rigid delivery sometimes makes their unhappiness difficult to reach. Lanthimos pushes the stiffness close to that limit, but enough vulnerability survives to make the humour uncomfortable for reasons beyond the strangeness of the premise.

We would save this for company that enjoys a comedy becoming uncomfortable. The violence is a real warning, and the deliberately stiff conversation will test anyone who needs the dialogue to sound like people they know. If either of you wants romance to be reassuring tonight, choose something else.

*Fi1m score 78, published 16 September 2026.*

## What the critics say

Most critics respond warmly to The Lobster’s deadpan attack on the pressure to couple up. Praise centres on the absurd premise, the bleak humour and the cast’s refusal to wink at the material. Colin Farrell draws particular approval for his subdued, physically unglamorous performance, while several reviews also find unexpected feeling beneath the stilted exchanges and shocking violence. The rules of this imagined society give critics plenty to recognise about contemporary courtship.

Reservations cluster around the second half, where several critics find the writing less focused and the pace slower. The wider disagreement concerns how much warmth survives the film’s chill: Variety finds profound tenderness in the satire, while Den of Geek considers it too aloof and self-satisfied to explore its ideas deeply. The spread runs from strong enthusiasm to qualified disappointment, with even the more doubtful reviews generally acknowledging the strength of the central conceit.

## Straight answers

**Is The Lobster worth watching?**

*The Lobster* is worth watching for anyone who likes comedy delivered without reassurance, and we scored it 78. Colin Farrell's defeated David gives the absurd rule a human cost, and the hotel scenes are sharp. The second half slackens, and the deliberately stiff dialogue will test viewers who want people to talk like people they know.

**How long is The Lobster, and what is it rated?**

*The Lobster* runs 1h 59m. It is a comedy and drama film.

**Where can I watch The Lobster in Romania?**

*The Lobster* is streaming on HBO Max in Romania. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service.

**How violent or frightening is The Lobster, and is it suitable for children?**

*The Lobster* is a 15 in the UK and an R in the US, and it is not suitable for children. Its violence is a real warning rather than a formality, and the humour comes from watching people suffer under rules they cannot question. Older teenagers with a taste for bleak comedy may manage it; the squeamish should look elsewhere.

**How does The Lobster compare to Fallen Leaves?**

*The Lobster* and [*Fallen Leaves*](https://film.one/film/fallen-leaves) share awkward courtship and deadpan humour, but the Finnish film is far kinder to its couple. Lanthimos treats coupledom as a threat enforced by penalty; Kaurismäki treats it as a hope for two people with bad jobs and worse luck. *Fallen Leaves* is the shorter and more consistent film; *The Lobster* is the more unsettling one.

**What should I watch after The Lobster?**

After *The Lobster*, try [*The Exterminating Angel*](https://film.one/film/the-exterminating-angel) (1962, Fi1m 87): Another polite gathering discovers that social rules can become a form of imprisonment. Then [*Fallen Leaves*](https://film.one/film/fallen-leaves) (2023, Fi1m 83): For more awkward courtship and deadpan humour, with considerably more kindness towards the couple.

### Reviews we read (24)

- **The AV Club**, A.A. Dowd (B+): The demented deadpan comedy creates a fun-house reflection of dating culture through its oppressive dystopia of mandatory coupling. Colin Farrell excels in a frumpy, swagger-free turn as the sad-sack lead, though the satire weakens somewhat after the first hour shifts to the woods. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/colin-farrell-goes-full-on-frumpy-in-the-darkly-deadpan-1798187729)
- **Radio Times**, Calum Baker (4/5): This chilly, incisive sci-fi satire blends surreal wit and shocking violence in a near-future where singledom is outlawed. The stilted tone may challenge some, but it teases out affecting moments in its study of love’s mechanics. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-wxbz9o/the-lobster/)
- **The Telegraph**, Film Critic (4/5): Lanthimos’s absurdist comedy is like nothing seen before, a post-Tinder Buñuel that jarringly reimagines Colin Farrell and works through mad comedic alchemy with its ensemble cast. It attacks real fallacies about relationships and systems with slicing weirdness that feels emotionally authentic. [Read](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/2016/04/14/the-lobster-review-like-nothing-youve-seen-before/)
- **Screen Daily** (70/100, inferred): Lanthimos continues his absurdist black comedy-drama with trademark weirdness and stilted dialogue intact despite the bigger budget and cast. Pathos seeps through the unsentimental façade and the film’s committed belief in its dystopian premise. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/the-lobster-review/5087416.article)
- **The New Yorker**, Anthony Lane (70/100, inferred): The review commends the film’s tenacious grasp of absurdity and grave intent in satirizing couple-centric society, but notes it remains grim, spiky fare where laughs die quickly. It singles out the central conceit and performances for keeping a straight face while holding the world up to scorn. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/05/16/the-lobster-and-captain-america-civil-war)
- **Little White Lies**, Trevor Johnston (3/3/4): Lanthimos delivers a dark dystopic satire that proves he retains his radical edge with a marquee cast. The film’s conceptual confidence and singular vision linger, though its drained emotion makes it easier to admire than enjoy. [Read](https://lwlies.com/reviews/the-lobster)
- **The Guardian**, Peter Bradshaw (★★★): The film is an intriguing but flawed absurdist satire that starts hilariously in its hotel setting but loses focus and bite in the second half. Bradshaw praises the deadpan performances, especially Olivia Colman, and the eerie hotel premise while criticising the loss of rigour and new undeveloped characters. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/oct/15/the-lobster-review-)
- **Time Out**, Dave Calhoun (3/5): The English-language debut mixes awkward chuckles with sinister chills in its surreal take on relationships and singledom. It engages for much of its runtime but struggles to sustain its sharp writing throughout. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/the-lobster)
- **Empire**, Ian Nathan: The review describes the film as a surreal, Kafkaesque exploration of attraction rules that proves inordinately strange and tiresomely glum but hideously funny in spots. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/lobster-review/)
- **Evening Standard**, David Sexton: The critic calls it a brilliantly funny horror film about dating and the difficulties of coupling up. He singles out the original conceit and thorough execution as its strengths. [Read](https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/film/the-lobster-film-review-brilliantly-funny-and-thoroughly-executed-a3091986.html)
- **Film Comment**, Yonca Talu: The critic describes the film as a Kafka-esque dystopian parable on romance and estrangement that draws striking parallels to The Trial. It praises the clinical narration and surreal portrait of an Everyman confronting a cold system, noting it achieves greater audience identification than Lanthimos's prior work. [Read](https://www.filmcomment.com/article/review-the-lobster-yorgos-lanthimos/)
- **Los Angeles Times**, Justin Chang: The critic calls it a hypnotically strange and suggestive dystopian parable executed with rigorous illogic and formal control, praising its witty dismantling of modern courtship and the lead performances by Farrell and Weisz. It notes the film’s tenderness amid cruelty but finds the second act wobbly. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-0513-the-lobster-review-colin-farrell-051316-20160509-snap-story.html)
- **The Hollywood Reporter**, Leslie Felperin: The director makes an effortless transition to the big leagues with this hilarious and haunting surreal parable about a world where citizens must find a mate or be turned into animals. It features an eclectic cast and richly rewards viewers with its absurdist comedy and fable elements, though it may disturb some arthouse audiences. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/lobster-cannes-review-795869/)
- **The New York Times**, A.O. Scott (Critic's Pick): The critic praises Lanthimos’s deadpan dystopian comedy as perhaps his masterpiece, highlighting its absurd regulated society where singles must find love or be turned into animals. Farrell and Weisz are singled out for their affecting performances amid the film’s blend of humor and grimness. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/13/movies/the-lobster-review-colin-farrell-rachel-weisz.html)
- **Total Film**, Jordan Farley: The piece finds the high-concept satire smart, melancholy and wickedly funny overall but notes it drags in the final act after moving to the woods. [Read](https://www.gamesradar.com/lobster-reaction-cannes-2015/)
- **Variety**, Guy Lodge: The review hails the wickedly funny, unexpectedly moving satire of couple-fixated society as a supremely singular Bunuelian fantasy that builds to profound tenderness. It singles out the ingenious lo-fi conceit, ensemble performances, and allegory for superficial contemporary courtship. [Read](https://variety.com/2015/film/festivals/the-lobster-review-colin-farrell-rachel-weisz-1201496633/)
- **The Playlist**, Oliver Lyttelton (A): The critic describes the film as an uproarious yet deadpan satire on societal constructs, dating mores and power structures that is also a surprisingly moving love story. They single out the impeccable craft, strong performances especially from Colin Farrell, and its status as Lanthimos' most accessible and enjoyable film yet. [Read](https://theplaylist.net/review-yorgos-lanthimos-moving-gloriously-weird-love-story-lobster-20160510/)
- **/Film**, Angie Han (85/100, inferred): The critic calls it must-see viewing thanks to its pitch-black sense of humor, keen insights into relationships, and aching romanticism. They single out the way the film strips the world down to its essence, revealing itself as tender, hopeful and original beyond its initial satirical premise. [Read](https://www.slashfilm.com/540181/the-lobster-review/)
- **The Skinny**, Philip Concannon (4/5): The absurd premise of finding a mate or facing transformation is played to deadpan comic perfection with a superb ensemble. It praises the potent mix of arch humour, shocking violence and perceptive commentary on relationships and society, despite a minor narrative misstep in the woodland section. [Read](https://www.theskinny.co.uk/film/new-releases/the-lobster)
- **Collider**, Talia Soghomonian (70/100, inferred): The critic describes the film as a smart speculative piece with warped dark humor that satirizes society’s obsession with coupledom and procreation, highlighting Colin Farrell’s enthralling performance and the absurdist premise at the hotel. The second half veers into greater absurdity and loses some of its original folly. [Read](https://collider.com/the-lobster-review-colin-farrell-comedy-rocks-cannes/)
- **NME**, Olly Richards (3/5): The film is a surreal and unpredictable comedy that is extremely funny and rather poignant at times but turns into a less interesting drama after the first half. It singles out Colin Farrell's paunchy, sad comic performance as a highlight while noting the starry cast and refusal to offer obvious answers. [Read](https://www.nme.com/reviews/reviews-various-artists-16297-309704)
- **Den of Geek**, David Crow (2.5/5): The review calls it a savagely blunt allegory about societal pressures on love lives and dating, with a strikingly clever premise and quirky world-building. It complains that the film remains too dark and self-satisfied to explore its ideas deeply, resulting in an aloof and cramped experience. [Read](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/the-lobster-review/)
- **Deadline**, Pete Hammond: The reviewer finds the surreal absurdity of the film has grown on him since its Cannes premiere, appreciating its unique concept and strong performances from Farrell, Weisz, and others. He recommends it for those seeking something bizarre. [Read](https://deadline.com/2016/05/the-lobster-review-colin-farrell-yorgos-lanthimos-rachel-weisz-video-1201755182/)
- **The Wrap**, Dave White: The critic views it as a deeply strange satire of relationships that highlights the absurdity and desperation in the search for love. He praises the chilly, bleakly funny tone and the performances, especially Farrell's. [Read](https://www.thewrap.com/the-lobster-review/)

## Details

- **Director:** Yorgos Lanthimos
- **Director:** Yorgos Lanthimos
- **Writer:** Efthimis Filippou, Yorgos Lanthimos
- **Cinematography:** Thimios Bakatakis
- **Editor:** Yorgos Mavropsaridis
- **Production design:** Jacqueline Abrahams
- **Costume design:** Sarah Blenkinsop
- **Producer:** Ceci Dempsey, Lee Magiday, Ed Guiney
- **Cast:** Colin Farrell as David; Rachel Weisz as Short Sighted Woman; Olivia Colman as Hotel Manager; Léa Seydoux as Loner Leader; Michael Smiley as Loner Swimmer; Ariane Labed as The Maid; John C. Reilly as Lisping Man; Ben Whishaw as Limping Man
- **Runtime:** 1h 59m
- **First release (France):** 15 May 2015
- **Genres:** Comedy, Drama, Romance
- **Budget:** $4 million
- **Box office:** $16 million
- **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTNZmOJxuAc

## Where to watch in Romania

- HBO Max: streaming

*Checked 2026-09-16.*

Also available in: AE, AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HR, HU, IE, IL, IT, JP, LT, MX, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PL, RO, RS, SE, SI, UA, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## Awards

- Academy Awards 2017: Best Writing, Original Screenplay (nominated)
- European Film Award – People's Choice Award for Best European Film 2016: European Film Award – People's Choice Award for Best European Film (nominated)
- European Film Award for Best Actor 2015: European Film Award for Best Actor (nominated)
- European Film Award for Best Costume Designer 2015: European Film Award for Best Costume Designer (won)
- European Film Award for Best Director 2015: European Film Award for Best Director (nominated)
- European Film Award for Best Film 2015: European Film Award for Best Film (nominated)
- European Film Award for Best Screenwriter 2015: European Film Award for Best Screenwriter (won)

## If you liked this

- *The Exterminating Angel* (1962), Fi1m 87: Another polite gathering discovers that social rules can become a form of imprisonment. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-exterminating-angel.md)
- *Songs from the Second Floor* (2000): Rigid compositions and exhausted people turn everyday society into bleak, patiently delivered comedy.
- *Fallen Leaves* (2023), Fi1m 83: For more awkward courtship and deadpan humour, with considerably more kindness towards the couple. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/fallen-leaves.md)
- *I'm a Cyborg, But That's OK* (2006): An unconventional romance that takes strange behaviour seriously without demanding that love cure it.
- *The Double* (2013): A timid man struggles inside another oppressive system, with humiliation played for uncomfortable laughs.

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/the-lobster