the lobster

Since the 1980s, loglines have been all the rage in Hollywood. Essentially a one-sentence hook used by screenwriters to pitch their ideas, it works best when comparing one movie to another; such as the ubiquitous Die Hard on a Bus scenarios that produced a slew of action rip-offs like Speed. But it's also an effective selling point for a film that hangs on a premise so preposterous that anything longer than one-sentence risks ruining the fun. So try this on for size:

A man checks into a hotel for unmatched singles with only 45 days to find a romantic partner, at which point if he is still unattached, he will be turned into a lobster.

There's your logline for The Lobster (2015), an amusingly outré comedy starring Colin Farrell as David, a sad-sack divorcee mingling with an equally quirky group of romantically-challenged candidates who hope to find an approved companion before they're changed into the animal of their choice. Director Yorgos Lanthimos, a Greek director with a string of so-so high-concept films already to his credit, stumbles upon an idea rife with social and emotional commentary. But it's the performances of his cast turns what would have been simply a film festival favorite into something everyone can enjoy.

And by everyone I mean fans of that particular brand of offbeat humor popularized by Wes Andersen in which characters reflect a reality that's more than slightly left of center. The Lobster is a cold and often mean-spirited film that hews closer to dystopian science fiction (like John Boorman's bizarre cult item Zardoz) than it does a straight-up comedy. But the dry, almost robotic performance from Farrell is a wonderfully amusing contrast against the not-so-funny fate that awaits him.

The film's first half is its best as David checks into the hotel with a dog - actually his brother, a failed former resident - and meets with the other oddball occupants. As he gets more desperate, David feigns common ground with a heartless woman (Angeliki Popoulia) in an attempt to make a match, however false the circumstances may be. But the result is his banishment to "The Woods" where other romantic rejects live out a meager existence forswearing all emotional entanglements. And it's there that he ironically meets the woman of his dreams (Rachel Weisz).

There will certainly be those for whom The Lobster is nothing but a pretentiously unfunny waste of time. Even with a catchy logline, it's still miles away from the standard Hollywood comedy; and its social themes never quite come together in the clever way Lanthimos probably planned them too. But, like the similarly bizarre Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, it proves that love stories come in all shapes, sizes...and species.

Lionsgate's DVD comes with one special feature - The Fabric of Attraction: Concocting the Lobster - and an ultraviolet download.