'The Lobster' review

Colin Farrell comedy brims with originality, wickedly weird details.

Edgy and surreal, peppered with rich deadpan absurdist moments, The Lobster, Jury Prize winner at Cannes offers a hilariously bizarre glance at contemporary mating habits.

In the near future singles check into The Hotel run by the tyrannical Olivia Colman - it's dance and interact but no masturbation with 45 days to find a genuine partner or they're transformed into an animal of their choice.

If lonely architect David (Colin Farrell) can't find a partner he wants to be a lobster. He tries the hotel dances and forays into The Woods to kill Loners but picking the heartless woman (Angelika Papoulia) was a disaster and the man with the limp (Ben Whishaw) and the man with the lisp (John C. Reilly) are only so so pals. David seeks happiness and that's his problem so it's escape into The Woods, obey the Loner's rebel Leader (Lea Seydoux) and fall in love with the previously unseen narrator Rachel Reisz which breaks the rules.

The cast are terrific, The Hotel's spot on but as it moves into The Woods it stretches itself and fumbles somewhat for ideas. Bizarre, absurdly funny, off-the-wall. This is the age of Tinder dating.

The Lobster review

This macabre drama, starring Rachel Weisz and Colin Farrell, about a hotel where single people must find a mate or be turned into a wild animal starts hilariously but loses its bite.

The Lobster - video review

Xan Brooks, Henry Barnes and Peter Bradshaw review Dogtooth director Yorgos Lanthimos's new satire, set in a world in which single people must couple-up or risk being turned into an animal. The Lobster, which features an ensemble cast including Colin Farrell, Rachel Weisz, Ben Whishaw, John C Reilly and Léa Seydoux, is released in the UK on Friday 16 October.

Chat shows can sometimes throw up guest lists that read like a particularly demented dinner party and that's certainly the case with Mr Norton tonight as Hollywood hell-raiser Colin Farrell, Top Gear motormouth Jeremy Clarkson, X Factor matriarch Sharon Osbourne and comedian Jo Brand find themselves parked next to each other on the sofa. At least we get a rare chance to sample the live delights of chart-topping Arcade Fire on terrestrial TV.

It must be a new TV term because the school joker is back behind his desk. Ross made a smooth transition last year to Saturdays on ITV1, where he still attracts around three million viewers and quality guests. On that basis, this week's catch of Irish Hollywood star Colin Farrell and model Kelly Brook doesn't look like a vintage offering, but with Ross, it scarcely matters: it's all about him.

Alan Carr returned tonight with a new series of Chatty Man and a plethora of half-decent guests, including David Hasselhoff, Colin Farrell and Cee Lo Green.

It would be all to easy to compare his talk show to Graham Norton's Friday-night programme and indeed, it would also be unfair to do so, because Alan Carr's efforts amount to nothing more than a pale imitation of Norton's show.

Without the celebratory atmosphere of a primetime weekend slot, Chatty Man felt listless and tired, which is never a good sign for a series-opener. As Carr limped through a weak preamble full of forgettable gags, he appeared to be lagging before the show had even started.

His first guest was David Hasselhoff, whose main purpose seemed to be providing a variety of Hoff-based puns (most notably, 'f*** hoff' and 'six-and-a-hoff') but who struggled to command the full attention of both the audience and Carr himself.

In fact, the host appeared slightly distracted throughout the programme and as the endless stream of guests flowed on, his focus waned and he seemed to be listening to them less and less.

Carr is an amiable little chap, but given that he's suppose to be a comedian, his jokes were far too thin on the ground. When the cast of The Inbetweeners discussed their show's success, they outshone him to a considerable extent.

The boys were witty and charming, but they pretty much led their own interview, a large portion of which centred on the burgeoning career of Joe Thomas' left testicle.

Unless Chatty Man can pull in more guests like them, this series is going to be a disappointing one.

The camp comedian may be an acquired taste for many, but his chat show has now reached its fifth series. Joining him for an all-male natter this evening are David Hasselhoff (plugging his panto Peter Pan), the cast of The Inbetweeners and actors Colin Farrell and Jim Sturgess (plugging their new film The Way Back). Expect plenty of leering from Carr. Cee Lo Green also performs his new single.