Review of Anomalisa (2015) by Darren B — 02 Jan 2017

On hearing about this movie I wondered why Kaufman didn't just use actors rather than go through all that was necessary to create a totally artificial yet photo realistic puppet world in which to present the drama. Well, the puppet modeling is very good and within the settings we see some gorgeous set ups. The puppets as a vehicle for telling a serious story, or a comic/serious story, are at a real disadvantage over actors with real faces, they simply cannot express as much. I also could let my mind wander more in the puppet theater here. A flaw in the production broke the spell regularly for me. For some reason there was an occasional flashing in the face, where there had been a change in light for a new face that had been put onto the puppet in the course of creating a moving facial expression over several frames. I found those flashes an additional distraction which creates a distancing from the story/character content.

I heard a radio interview with Kaufman where he talked about the project having been a radio drama before. I think maybe that would have been better. The mind could wander into the drama that way rather than being distracted by production mechanics.

The film is about, for me, a moment of connection in an eternity of alienation.

It contains a simple love story. Too simple, in my opinion, to actually be believed.

(SORT OF SPOILER COMING I GUESS).

What goes on is an alienated man perceives everyone as exactly the same, except this one woman who he takes as different and therefore lovable, and he is in love until she becomes unlovable having evolved into the same as everybody else.

Along the way there is a very well done sex scene. It is not at all sexy really but oddly emotionally gripping with the puppet's halting, blundering drunken maneuvers. And the voice actors are very good of course. (I'd still rather SEE Jennifer Jason Leigh, but whatever.).

These is a slight fantasticalness in the movie, but not enough to go with animation and then not really exploit it completely. I don't really get why someone would create animation that is sort of photorealistic like this when the medium is so completely malleable. There are fantastic, odd, visual touches, but they seem like asides with no follow through on them at all.

As to the script. I have enjoyed and had my thinking provoked more in any of the other Charlie Kaufman written movies. Though not BAD, this one seems slight by comparison.