‘The Lobster’ Trailer: Colin Farrell Does Not Want to Turn Into a Dog

Man, am I glad I’m happily married.

In The Lobster, single people have it rough. They’re shipped to a hotel and given 45 days to find a mate. If they don’t get shacked up in that time, they’re turned into an animal. Colin Farrell shows up to the Hotel looking to find love with a dog (who also happens to be his brother).

Weird. An official synopsis:

The Lobster is a love story set in the near future where single people, according to the rules of The City, are arrested and transferred to The Hotel. There they are obliged to find a matching mate in 45 days. If they fail, they are transformed into an animal of their choosing and released into The Woods. A desperate Man escapes from The Hotel to The Woods where The Loners live and falls in love, although it is against their rules.

What animal would you choose? I’d go with a dolphin. No, wait; a giraffe. I always wanted to be tall.

The Lobster is the latest surreal vision from Yorgos Lanthimos, the Greek director of such awesomely strange movies as Dogtooth and Alps. It’s also Lanthimos’ first film in English and the cast of American and English actors includes Rachel Weisz, John C. Reilly, Olivia Colman, and Ben Whishaw. (And whoever plays Colin Farrell’s dog brother.)

The film debuted at Cannes last spring and won the Jury Prize (which is basically the 3rd place trophy for the films in competition). Next it plays the Toronto International Film Festival in a week or so. It doesn’t have a U.S. release date yet, but it’s scheduled to open in the U.K. on October 16.