Director: Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson
By Alex Watson
What is it to be human and to feel? That is the big question that Charlie Kaufman asks in his quirky yet heartfelt stop-motion piece Anomalisa. Ordinary life is put under the microscope and we ask ourselves about the emotions we experience, the feeling we have about those love supposedly love and finally standing out in a mundane world. Kaufman effortless puts together possibly the most human feeling movie of 2016 and through a limit budget, this piece shines brightly.
Michael Stone (David Thewlis) is a bored writer of a series of customer service books who is unhappy with the mundane feel of his life. On a business trip to Cincinnati, he checks into the fancy Fregoli hotel where he prepares for a conference he is due to speak at. During his time at the hotel, Michael finds himself meeting Lisa (Jennifer Jason Leigh) who is different from other ordinary and similar characters (all voiced by Tom Noonan). Though unconfident and nervous, Lisa could just be the love of his life.
Anomalisa is a movie that changes the face of stop-motion in ways we could never imagine. Cinematographer Joe Passarelli's work deserves big credit onscreen. Love has a whole new look and Kaufman and Johnson use a unique human touch to bring forward to more emotional content. Meeting Michael Stone is an interesting experience because he is a conflicted man seemingly unable to interact with people. His early and strained conversations with a cab driver and a bell hop will ring painfully familiar to many. Early on his attempts to reconnect with an old flame end disastrously due to his inability to express his past regrets in any logical sense. His books that are adored by many professionals bring him no joy because he cannot bring himself down to a level where he comprehends things.
Meeting Cyndi Lauper loving Lisa is like a comet striking his earth because unlike the others she displays a more vulnerable yet sweet personality. Surrounded by the same similar looking individuals with calm, emotionless voices Lisa paints his world with a splash of color. The relationship between the two is beautifully tragic one because although the pair is maybe what each has been looking for, how does it progress after? These hard questions lead to some wonderfully funny and hard hitting scenes, such as Michael's excruciating later meltdown during a key time. A sense of solitude while living in a hard world comes forward and your heart is never quite the same.
Kaufman and Johnson are able to assemble a unique wit in Anomalisa and such absurd items as 'the meeting pit' and an animatronic Japenese sex doll are just a couple of rib ticklers. The pair play on the real life human difficulties and irritations, Michael's manic swearing while negotiating shower temperatures is one example. More than anything it perfectly exemplifies the questions we all ask in life. Through every hard goodbye or greeting and every failed relationship, we face some bitter truths. Michael is a man trying to make sense of it all and understand what precisely has brought him to this uninspiring existence? Lisa is a way out from it all, but will he be brave enough to take the steps needed?
David Thewlis gives what is perhaps his finest career performance. Retaining his distinctive Blackpool accent, Thewlis is the very voice Kaufman has been looking for to express Michael's bewilderment. A capable character actor in Harry Potter, Legend and Mike Leigh's Naked, Thewlis' voice alone brings things to life. Jennifer Jason Leigh continues her recent purple patch with an emotionally charged performance as Lisa. Downtrodden and unconfident, Leigh finds a spark of hope for the character to hold on and the audience's prays go with her. Tom Noonan playing each supporting character has a hard task in front of him, but he manages it with ease. Using the same mellow voice, he personifies the bland and beige people of Michael's world.
Anomalisa is one movie in 2016 that will really steal your heart. Things may end abruptly at the film's conclusion, but the questions involved will keep your mind ticking for some time.
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