Shortly after his wife has left him, David (Colin Farrell) finds himself sent to a luxury hotel where he has precisely forty five days to hook up, meaningfully, with another person else he will be transferred into a beastie of his choice (i.e. a lobster with it s virility and legendary long-life) and released into the wild. He is not alone in this oddly sterile environment presided over by a prim and proper manager (Olivia Colman), and is soon befriended by a rather obedient, follow the crowd, chap with a limp (Ben Whishaw) and his bemused friend who lisps (John C. Reilly). To be fair to David , he has rather let himself go and isn t quite the object of everyone s desire that he might like but he does, however, manage to engage with a woman prone to nosebleeds (Jessica Barden) and then with one who can barely see the end of her own nose (Rachel Weisz) so perhaps he might escape a future armed with claws at the chilly depths Meantime, we also learn that he also has a bit of an ulterior motive whilst in the hotel, thanks to his dog Bob , and so at some point a plan for escape might well be in order. That done, he encounters a group of rebels who have defied the rules on relationships, some even escaped from the almost militaristic hotel, and who now expressly forbid any sort of physical or emotional interaction - to the extent that they will sew up their lips if they kiss! As he and his new belle (Weisz) try to navigate this new contrasting world, is it any safer for them with their new anarchists or might they have survived better under the aegis of Miss Colman and her wacky team There is something deliciously erratic about the story and the performances here and as the plot unravels we see a man whose interest in romance - in any of it s guises - was at it s nadir when we started, starts to find it taking over his life and risk his survival, too. The supporting cast deliver strongly, quirkily and enigmatically across the board and the characterisations - especially from Weisz, Barden and even from the usually quite wooden Whishaw - all help to create a series of dystopian scenarios that are often as android in their approaches to human relationships as they are absurd and surreal in their depictions of how people deal with an oppressive social order.