Review of Anomalisa (2015) by Glenn G — 03 Jan 2016

MANNEQUINALINGUS - My Review of ANOMALISA (4 Stars).

Forget everything you know about adult puppet movies! Charlie Kaufman is back and he's not in a TEAM AMERICA: WORLD POLICE mood. Written by Kaufman and co-directed by Duke Johnson, who knows a thing or two about stop motion animation from his work on COMMUNITY, this new film is a dry, measured and somewhat stunning meditation on existentialism, the thrill of the hunt, and the different ways men and women process such things as relationships and fulfillment.

Arriving on a flight from Los Angeles into Cincinnati to deliver a speech on customer service, Michael Stone (voiced by David Thewlis) is the kind of guy you never want to approach. He clearly loathes small talk, refusing to engage with a cab driver about Cincinnati chili or with the bellman about the weather. Disconnected from life and polite conversation, he checks into his hotel, where he meets a woman, Lisa (Jennifer Jason Leigh) who is different than everyone else. Whereas every other character, male or female, has the same speaking voice (MANHUNTER's Tom Noonan) and/or often look alike, Lisa stands out. She's an anomaly, as the title implies. The quiet, low key hunt is on for this married father. To say more about the story would ruin the experience.

Think the setting and some themes from LOST IN TRANSLATION meets the melancholy of PEANUTS and the dead-air space of the old DAVEY AND GOLIATH cartoons. Add a little Camus and you'll get a small sense of the tone. It's also the second film in a row for Leigh in which she's primarily confined to one space. Most likely a coincidence, but this slow but rewarding film gives you plenty of time to think about such things! The cast, and the three mentioned do all of the work, is great. Thewlis is commanding as a middle-aged man struggling with doing what's morally right vs. what's actually right for him. Leigh, never one to take a standard romcom role, has quite a knack for it. Her voice is open yet quirky. When she busts out an a capella rendition of "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun", I grinned from ear to ear.

Despite being puppets, these are brave performances. Allowing for visible seams, the characters look human enough while retaining a distancing otherness to them. Additionally, we're treated to nudity and sex, and not of the Stone/Parker variety. These naked bodies, with all their imperfections, feel so real and endearing. Its fairly explicit sex scene feels mature and a little sad, and definitely not played for laughs.

Of course it wouldn't be a Charlie Kaufman screenplay without a turn towards the bizarre. BEING JOHN MALKOVICH, ADAPTATION, ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND all took surreal turns, and SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK embraces its strangeness from start to finish. ANOMALIES goes off the rails in its final third, but it always seems of a piece. It's as if we're a party to the male psyche, its gaze, it's panic, and mid-life crisis acting out, yet Kaufman and Johnson bring it down to earth with an air of bittersweetness.

No PIXAR blockbuster (and there's nothing wrong with that), this is a rarity - a grown-up film made for adults. It uses animation to shine a light on human flaws, asking its audience to reflect and not just smile at all the pretty colors. The mundanity of a jet hitting the tarmac or of ice cubes filling a hotel bucket dominate this film's details. A small film about big ideas, ANOMALISA richly rewards the patient and the daring.