Film Review: Anomalisa

A cerebral meditation on loneliness and identity, Anomalisa would be a truly unique film, even if it weren’t stop-motion, a technique usually reserved for children’s romps.

In the latest offering from the genius mind of Charlie Kaufman (best known for his brilliantly imaginative screenplays for Spike Jonze’s films Being John Malkovich and Adaptation), customer service guru Michael Stone checks into Al Fregoli hotel. It’s not a coincidence: Michael (voiced by David Thewlis) suffers from the eponymous condition, causing him to perceive everyone as identical. Their faces are static blanks, their voices a constant monotone (all voiced by Tom Noonan. Until, that is, he hears the sweet and sorrowful tones of Lisa (Jennifer Jason Leigh), all vulnerability, scars and ever-changing expressions. She is his exception. But will making her his saviour prevent Michael from accepting her as a fully-rounded person?

Soulful and searching, Kaufman’s film is layered with visual and emotional meaning. The seams of Kaufman’s puppets are purposely left visible, making for a deliberately surreal experience. The artifice highlights the emptiness that Michael feels, but also questions our own fear when the action becomes all too real. Watching puppets have raw, tender and realistic sex places a spotlight on the sometimes uncomfortable realities of physical intimacy.

The film serves as a masterful critique of a culture that commodifies emotion. As Michael encourages customer service reps to feign happiness and ingratiate themselves with customers to make sales targets, he ironically promotes a Fregoli business model, seeing people not as individuals, but as a means to an end.

In Anomalisa, a few puppets and a minuscule budget somehow create an entire universe reverberating with life’s biggest questions.

In cinemas March 11

4/5