Films > Film Reviews

Anomalisa

15/03/16

Entrancingly sombre and creative, Charlie Kaufman is back but with stop-motion to add to his unique repertoire. It’s a wonderful layer on top of a thoughtful story, which isn’t his strongest but becomes more engaging because of the way everything looks.

Self help customer service guru Michael Stone (David Thewlis) is staying over at a Cincinnati hotel for one night before the next day’s book reading. However everyone sounds and appears the same to him; that is until he encounters Lisa (Jennifer Jason Leigh) who he falls for and wants to run away with.

I’ve been aching to see this film for ages; thankfully, I’ve now seen it and can say it was worth the wait. It’s a surreal watch at times with a squinted comic edge that works well.  As things fail around Michael you can’t help but laugh at the awkwardness and clichéd human elements of what happens.

One of the best qualities lies with the dialogue, for where the plot doesn’t go places the conversations and detail in Kaufman’s writing is smart and personal. There’s such an assured vulnerability to both main characters that you end up looking past the animation and buy into them as real and lonely people.

Duke Johnson who co-directed this film must be commended for his astonishing and somewhat eerie puppet designs that fill this feature. On top of this, the idea is taken a step further than Team America: World Police as we see sex between stop-motion figures in what could be the funniest (yet most human) scene this year.

I can only say that the big fault for me was the plot; story-wise I was a bit saddened to not have something more unique. The visuals and dialogue were incredible but the narrative was a little Lost in Translation and nothing else.

David Thewlis voices Michael in such a British way, klutzy yet smart in what he knows and how he approaches the vastly different Lisa. It’s pretty much the perfect voice for this puppet. Jennifer Jason Leigh brings innocent comic timing to her worrisome role as Lisa, which bounces off Michael Stone. She’s shy, naive, goofy and comes alive thanks to Leigh’s magical vocals. Tom Noonan who voices everyone else brings a great one-tone level to his performance that makes all other characters spookily bland and unremarkable.

It’s a very original animation that is crafted masterfully from the puppetry to the written word. Kaufman strikes again, making love a haunting special backdrop to disappear into.

8.5/10