Anomalisa

**Spoiler Alert**

Director: Duke Johnson and Charlie Kaufman/Voices: David Thewlis, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Tom Noonan

Charlie Kaufman is one of film's great screenwriting talents. His screenplays for the films Being John Malkovich, The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Synecdoche, NY and Adaptation reflect the thoughts and emotions of an intellectually curious mind. His new film; Anomalisa, which is based on his radio play of the same name and for which he shares a directing credit with Duke Johnson, is an affecting drama told in an unconventional way. Rather than film in live action, Kaufman and Johnson employed stop motion animation puppetry and miniaturized sets to tell the story of a man who feels emotionally disconnected from a world populated by people whose voices appear to be all the same.

Though the use of stop motion puppetry wouldn't seem like the most ideal story-telling medium, it proves to be quite an effective on film. And in choosing an offbeat manner in which to tell their story, Kaufman and Johnson manage to create a cinematic experience that is both moving and profound.

Anomalisa tells the story of author Michael Stone (David Thewlis, voice); who has just arrived in Cincinnati to deliver a speech at a conference on customer service. We see Michael walking through the airport terminal; indifferent to the faces and bodies he brushes past.

Michael's encounter with a cabby is disconcerting. The driver refuses to make eye-contact but accepts the fare. Michael's weary patience with the cab driver's incessant chatter is sorely tried by the repetitive comments about the Zoo and Cincinnati's famed chile. Michael's mood hardly improves when the bellhop at the hotel continues the stream of seemingly endless prattle.
A phone call to his wife and child, which is mostly perfunctory, also ends disappointingly. All alone, Michael orders room service but decides to call a woman from his past; a former lover who happens to be living in Cincinnati. The phone conversation is naturally awkward but Michael asks her to the hotel for a drink; an offer she warily accepts.

At this point in the film, one will notice that all the voices not Michael's are the same; male and female. Actor Tom Noonan lends his non-threatening, flat, nasally voice to all the characters, even Michael's former lover. This eccentricity is at first puzzling, as the audience might wonder why the filmmakers would deliberately have everyone sound the same. And when Michael meets his former lover in the hotel bar; a woman he hasn't seen in ten years, her voice also bears the same lifeless tone we hear in everyone else.

Their conversation is naturally awkward at first as she asks what has prompted Michael to reach out to her after ten years. Michael talks about his problems, mainly his doubts about his mental health and his feelings of loneliness. Before long, the conversation turns to their failed relationship. Old wounds are reopened as his former lover asks why he walked away from their relationship. A conversation already fraught with tension escalates into anger when Michael invites her to his room. Her anger prompts a scene-making exit where Michael is left alone at the table, embarrassed and dejected. Michael returns to his room and looks out his window. He sees a man in a building across the street; sitting before a computer, preparing to masturbate; which does little to alleviate his feeling of isolation and loneliness.

Not long after, Michael hears a voice while in the shower. He steps out, dons pants and a shirt and hurries into the hallway to locate the person he believes he's heard. Finding no one, he knocks on several doors, only to come upon one room with two women who happen to recognize him from his book. The women mention they are also in town to attend the customer service conference and are keen to mention his speech, which they are eager to hear. Of the two women, Michael finds one has a distinctive voice unlike the others he's heard. He notices that the voice, which belongs to a woman named Lisa (Jennifer Jason Leigh, voice) is pleasing to his ear. Enchanted by her voice, Michael invites both women for drinks in the hotel bar. While the friend is eager and coquettish, Lisa is shy and tentative.
After drinks, the evening nearly comes to an end until Michael invites Lisa back to his room for a nightcap. Urged on by her friend, whose ego is somewhat bruised, Lisa agrees to his invitation.

Their conversation, fueled by Lisa's nervous volubility, exhilarates Michael, who encourages her to carry on. As they become more intimate, Michael notices a scar over one of Lisa's eyes. She preempts any questions about it with her firm refusal to discuss it further.

While she talks, we see that Lisa is self-deprecating; speaking disparagingly about her lack of smarts and how she needs a dictionary to understand many of the words in his book. In spite of her lack of self-confidence, Michael becomes rapturous as he listens to Lisa verbalize and at one point in their conversation, he asks her to sing a Cindy Lauper song when she mentions how much she likes her music. The scene where Lisa sings Lauper's Girls Just Want to Have Fun is one of the film's most touching moments; as is what follows after during an amorous joining.

The next morning, as the two enjoy breakfast in the hotel room, the euphoria both Michael and Lisa felt the night before is doused by harsh reality as their respective, annoying, behavioral tics begin to emerge. What is worse, the enchanting voice that excited him the night before begins to bear traces of the flat voice he hears everywhere else until it overlaps with Lisa's voice.

Michael's talk at the conference becomes surreal as his angry, agitated outbursts about the lack of human connection mingle with the more mundane aspects of the speech. What is actually said and what does the audience hear? Reality and madness begin to blur.

In returning home to his wife and son, Michael finds a surprise party in his honor but though his wife tells him that everyone present loves him, the idea holds little succor. The final, unsentimental shot of Michael sitting on his stairs; alienated from the people and the party, makes any happy resolution impossible. But in spite of Michael's tragic condition, the final shot in the film belongs to Lisa, whose irrepressible good nature allows her something less gloomy.

I'm not sure the film would have been as powerful had the story employed live action. One may notice that the puppets had deliberate seams in their faces, as if everyone were wearing masks. Earlier in the film, Michael's anxiety about his face becoming detached to reveal a robotic one underneath gives the audience the sense that everyone may be automatons beneath their epidermal veneer.

I don't know what vocal criteria Kaufman and Johnson had in mind for their characters but I must say the casting was exceptional. David Thewlis' voice has a plaintive quality, which is ideal for Michael's anxious disposition. Lisa's voice, which she uses to mask a psychic wound like the facial scar she tries to hide, often sounds like that of a little girl's; vulnerable and uncertain. Jennifer Jason Leigh's vocal performance captures all the nuance in Lisa's personality.

Unfortunately for Michael, no answers or comforting solutions to his existential suffering are forthcoming. One of the film's sad ironies is that a man whose success is predicated on customer relations--human relations--is desperate for meaningful, human connection.

It is interesting to consider that one of the most touching dramas in American film in 2015 relied on puppetry to tell its story. The puppetry might have only been a cute gimmick if the film lacked a poignant story. Though the faces we see on-screen remain artificial, the emotions, anxieties and thoughts communicated are wonderfully and tragically human.