Namely The Lobster

Names anchor characters in the story space; they give them the weight of a past and a future within their world. But about when characters don't have names? Is there a purpose to that? Of course there is. Moves are so damn intentional. In some movies like Fight Club its a plot point (not a spoiler.) But in most it is something much more subtle. Yorgos Lanthimos' recent The Lobster names only its protagonist David (Collin Ferral trying not to look suave) every other character is nameless.

The character's namelessness is all about identity.

Idea on Identity 1:

A character without a name forgoes a slice of their own identity for the plot. What? What does that mean? Well in The Lobster the story world is, in itself, a character. Let's pull Fight Club back into the conversation. Fight Club like The Lobster has a story world that sets up the action as much as any character does. In Fight Club the mundaneness; the order of the world sparked the action of our nameless antihero and in The Lobster the societal patterns forced those who could not conform to take action. The plot is a character and the characters are observers. This is that and that is those. The characters are chunks of ethos carrying a human element through a largely thematic story.

Idea on Identity 2:

In the world of The Lobster every human is their most prominent feature. There is a guy with a limp his name on IMDB is Limping Man.

This is him.

Someone made helpful posters

There is a dude with a lisp

That's him

David is near-sighted. As was his ex-wife. As should any future mate he may have. In a world with such a singular sense of identity no wonder no one has any clue who they are. Look at the above images. Each of these characters is one trait. That is their whole self. With all this in mind the final scene is even more dramatic (romantic?)

Nah.

David is the only character with a name; identity beyond the physical. That gives him the power and strength to forever alter the part of himself that others saw as who he was, near-sighted guy. By blinding himself for Rachel Weitz he becomes in the eyes (hah) of society a whole different person. But that doesn't matter to him because he knows he is not near-sighted guy, he is David and he believes Rachel Weitz knows that too.

Idea on Identity 3 (This doesnt actually connect to identity but it's interesting):

Rachel Weitz's unnamed gal plays the "love interest." But she is more than David's tag-a-along. She narrates much of the first section of the film. Her voice reminds the viewer of the calculability of The Lobsters world. Before she even meets David she is able to be a commentator on his life. At times her voice even replaces his during his dialogue. That is how predictable conversation is. It is only when David and Rachel Weitz meet and their lives take a turn for the original and within their world, extraordinary, that the voice-over stops. She no longer knows the story.

#TheLobster #Names #Elizabeth