For the first time in a Charlie Kauffman film the quirkiness is not in the idea – there’s nothing here like finding a portal into John Malkovich’s head, or a screenwriter who writes himself into an adaptation, or a couple who use technology to forget each other, or a playwright who attempts to depict his life in an ever-evolving play. The quirkiness here is in the visuals.
Anomalisa is his most simple and human story to date - a stirring tale of a man going through a nervous breakdown - but where the story is pretty normal fare for Kauffman it is told through eye-catching stop-motion animation.
David Thewlis is Michael Stone, known in customer service circles as something of a guru whose book can increase productivity by ninety-five percent. He’s in Cincinnati, Cleveland for a presentation and checks himself into the Fregoli Hotel. He’s frustrated, irritable and lonely and so, although married with a child, calls up an ex he walked out on ten years before - to apologise or better understand why he walked away without a word he doesn’t know yet. The meet is a disaster but Michael runs into Lisa (Leigh), a scarred unlucky-in-love, and falls in love with her.
Now, did I say that this was pretty straightforward? Well this is a Charlie Kauffman film after all so there is some oddity to be had: Apart from Michael, everyone – the taxi driver, the waitress, his ex, the bellhop, his wife and his little boy - all look and sound the same (and all voiced by Tom Noonan), representing Michael’s jaded view of the world. Incidentally the name of which lends itself to a paranoid delusion where the victim believes every person is in fact the same person - it’s only Lisa that stands out and it’s her voice that induces these feelings of love. Her brightness is an anomaly in his world.
It’s all so desperately sad and even the occasional humourous moments are infused with heartache, like Lisa’s acapella rendition of Girls Just Wanna Have Fun. Despite the awkward movements of the characters the animation is gorgeous with real thought and skill gone into how water, smoke and mirror reflections will play. While the style pulls one into the inherent ennui of the world it also draws attention to itself with Kauffman and co-director Duke deliberately highlighting the construction of the characters’ appearances with visible joins on the faces.
Touching and perhaps for the first time for a Kauffman film more believable, Anomalisa is another triumph from the most talented screenwriter of his generation.