Review of Anomalisa (2015) by Nico B — 23 Jul 2017

Charlie Kaufman does to screenplays and movies what dreams do to a receptive mind. One wakes up fully remembering there was a dream and what that dream was slips away the more wide awake one becomes, knowing that dream was something, possibly even more wide awake.

Then, I have to see the movie again. Five stars for this. Five stars, always, for movies that show something new on each viewing.

Let's give credit for Anomalisa to Duke Johnson, too. I really thought I was watching CGI made to look like stop motion. I even thought the Mandelbrot on the hotel room wall proved it. I was wrong.

I'm one of the ones who would not choose on purpose to see an animated movie. My husband put this on for me because I was tired of what I was finding on my own. Then he left me alone to my movie. Anomalisa fooled me in the beginning. I had no clue it was animated. Then, I groaned. Ugh. Leave it to my comic book loving husband to pick this. Good thing I am open-minded. I stayed with it. Had I known it was Charlie Kaufman from the beginning, I never would have had that silent rebellion (even though the husband can be right up there with the geniuses, not-with-standing his penchant for B-movies).

The movie drew me in. I would not have been surprised to learn it was Charlie Kaufman. Yes! Call me biased.

I haven't seen Anomalisa 10 plus times, yet, like I have seen Adaptation, but give me time. I'm still learning about how it was made, that it was a stage play, and it was initially not intended to be visual. It blows me away, because it's as though there are two separate pieces that have been written.

There is the original piece written for the ears. There is the screenplay, written for the eyes. Both attempt to use perception to bridge the gap between each perspective to create a link or even a loop. There was another poster on the hotel room wall illustrating a weave. Was this just an absent-minded set design or intentional?

It's amazingly simple yet complex. One does not have to be Fibonacci to get that customer service is about business. Whoa! What a segue! Throughout the movie there are suggestions of bridges. There is even a picture of a spiral shell in one of those hotel posters. There is the center, maybe it's perception, and there is the idea of growing further from the center. The whole is what holds it together, but what of this customer service business? If the protagonist is a motivational speaker, then why not be one who speaks on Math is Fun! And You, too, Can Figure!

Well, Michael Stone, voiced by David Thewlis, is one such speaker. He seems to be struggling with the concept of how everyone is unique yet the same, but he can't get past how everyone is more alike than different. To bridge this gap between unique and same, one must present a sort of Gestalt which is nearly impossible in the context of linear speech giving. Even the guy jerking off has to help himself climax, achieving some grand "Ah ha!", because the image on his monitor isn't going to exactly do it all for him. He looks up to Stone's hand-caught-in-the-cookie-jar, Stone hides but leaves the glow of his cigarette in the window. He whips the cigarette away and closes the drapes.

One has to make some sort of effort. I think it's this moralizing that is what is driving Stone crazy. It's as though religion makes all our differing perspectives, all our uniquenesses the same. Religion wasn't exactly addressed, but the idea of racism was mentioned in the self-conscious scene of the Jew's Harp. Shhhh! They'll hear us. What's wrong with that? This effort is like a "reading too much into it." Am I wrong? So what? Do we benefit from childlike behaviors to learn or are we kept naive to benefit some concept of control? This movie is not for passive movie goers, which is why I sometimes enjoy my husband's selections. He left me alone so that he could go off and play his video games. So what if we are each alone in some proverbial jerk off. Sure, there's fun in having someone do it for you, but you gotta do SOMEthing in return. Again, this movie is not for flaccid movie goers.

Lisa, voiced by Jennifer Jason Leigh, starts off as unique as demonstrated in her lack of self-confidence yet accepting of herself and willingness to be made to feel good. She is energetic but is not thriving. She becomes Stone's companion for an evening during which both thrive; but, the instant she is willing to change to please Stone, rather, not to offend Stone, she becomes everyone else because she just does not "know", already. Idiot. Stone ends up having more contempt for her when she suggests he consider the feelings of others. In this regard, she is the same in some kind of manipulative, hypocrisy. You're not so dumb, after all. Yet, Stone is the one who preaches, "What does it cost you?".

The cab driver, voiced by Tom Noonan also voicing everyone else, tries to connect with Stone and misses by miles, except he does successfully take Stone to his hotel, The Fregoli, where automaton behaviors go through the motions down one long hall of all the doors either being on the left or on the right and numbers distinguish one from another. On an elevator, the numbers designate floors and buttons to push.

There's more. Way more. Little buttons, not-so-hidden. I want to write it all, but Mr. Kaufman already has.