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The premise of The Lobster is simple. In a dystopian future where everyone must have a romantic partner, those who cannot find love are sent to a hotel in which they have 45 days to find someone or face being turned into an animal of their choice. This is the fifth feature film from Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos. His third, Dogtooth, won the Prix Un Certain Regard at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. The Lobster itself won the Jury Prize at Cannes this year.

At its heart The Lobster is a satire about society’s obsession with finding ‘the one’. Imagine an eHarmony ad, with three minutes of lonely people meeting one another, noticing matching idiosyncrasies, and sparking off relationships that point towards everlasting happiness. Now imagine what it would be like if someone pulled that ad apart, drew it out over two hours, and let darkness seep into its every stretch mark. What you would have would be original, it would be funny and it would be very very strange. The Lobster is all of these things.

Colin Farrell’s downbeat performance underpins the film’s comedy. He is note-perfect playing an immoral and desperate loser, who still conveys pathos through his discomfort with the lengths he has to go to not be alone. John C. Reilly is solid as Farrell’s luckless friend with a lisp. Ben Whishaw plays the strongest of the supporting characters. Whishaw nails a combination of vulnerability and ruthlessness, as his skinny awkward character is willing to stop at nothing, even self-harm (in one of the film’s two genuinely jarring moments), in order to find himself a wife.

However, The Lobster is a long two hours, a timeframe that it is difficult to maintain a comedy over. By the 60-minute mark one is ready for the film to end, and the next 60 minutes contain few new ideas or jokes. Indeed the second half feels like a misguided sequel that was tacked on to the original film. Many of the performances are one-note, which can often be a strength of the classic three act 90 minute comedy as there isn’t enough time for the performances to become stale. But when the same characters are coming back scene after scene to make the same jokes in different situations it has the effect of binge watching an entire season of Little Britain whilst on Lithium. However, the film survives this flaw to be an engaging and unsettling feature.

The Lobster is currently showing in the IFI.