Review of Anomalisa (2015) by Jeff C — 09 Feb 2016

Anomalisa is a rare case of a film that puts the protagonist's glasses on its audience. Personally, it was easier for me to see this after watching the film a second time. It's easy to relate to and agree with Michael, the protagonist, in many ways. He feels like he's more real than everybody around him, that everything feels monotonous and dull. He's also looking to make a connection with another human after nearly a decade without one. The greatness of Anomalisa is that it's sometimes so relatable, but it really shouldn't be.

In the film's beginning, Michael goes through the motions of travel and interacts with boring, inhumane customer service agents. They and everyone else have the same face and the same voice. Michael has a view of reality in which he feels like everybody is the same, that conversation is "blah blah blah", that interactions are all routine. Every boring person he talks to is involved with customer service, a field that he writes and gives lectures on. Michael is not actually different from anybody else, although he has himself convinced otherwise.

We all search for the someone who stands out among a faceless crowd, and Anomalisa comments on the foolishness of this desire. When Michael meets Lisa, he's instantly thrilled because Lisa is the only person besides him who sounds and looks different. While Lisa is likable, her flaws are obvious, and there's nothing to convince us that she, of all people, is who Michael has been waiting for. There's no question that the two have honest, intimate interactions in their time together, but we wonder if Lisa is truly special, or if she just randomly registered with the delusional Michael?

The truth is, Lisa is special, but no more than everyone else. Michael doesn't even understand what exactly draws him to Lisa. The voice and face surely stand out to him, but he is unable to explain his attraction beyond that point. During a speech later on, we see that he doesn't have any idea what he's looking for; he just knows that he wants it, that it's different, and that he hasn't yet found it.

Michael's flaw is that his reality is distorted by narcissism and a tendency to funnel everyone he encounters into one thing that he calls boring. Every experience in his life suffers from his inability to see what's special about it. Michael's tragic end contrasts Lisa's end, where she is able to actually take away something positive from their encounter and progress her life and her mind. When Michael goes back home to a surprise birthday party for him, we see that he has love in his life, but he just can't recognize it. People don't actually have the same faces and voices, but Michael sees everyone like a doll and it prevents him from enjoying his life and the people in it the way he should.

Although it's minimalistic, you can dissect many details and symbols in the film that round the message out. It's also laugh out loud funny at many parts. The animation style is an achievement in realism and is used in a unique and extremely purposeful way. Anomalisa is definitely the kind of film that gets better the more you think about it and the more you realize how you relate to it. It will make you contemplate your own tendency to categorize people and think about how that impedes your ability to see the greater reality.