Anomalisa

I can’t believe I was excited to see this film. First off – yes, I do get excited to see certain films. It’s rare, sure, but it happens. They don’t all jumble together and congeal into a ball of celluloid goo … for at least a week or two afterwards. And this is Charlie Kaufman, the man who wrote Being John Malkovich, Adaptation and Eternal Sunshine of the Plotless Mine. Imagine what this guy could do with animation?! Imagine it! Imagine!

Yeah, um, the answer is “full shower scene involving paunchy fiftysomething white guy.” Why, yes, cock and balls here are quite realistic. Um … thank you for that. You’ll have to excuse my disappointment; I was told Anomalisa was worth my time.

The first half of this film is as follows: plane lands, subdued-and-not-terribly-interesting Englishman gets off plane, takes cab, checks into hotel, and has a drink with a former flame that ends in dullish disaster. In between great moments like the full peeing scene and the hotel emergency evacuation procedure loop on the TV, he has brief forced, awkward conversation with: the guy next to him on the plane, the cabbie, the concierge, the bellhop, his wife, and finally, the old flame. That’s it. That’s possibly the most boring first half of a film I saw all 2015.

Ok, to be fair, our hero interrupts his first-half film moping to visit an “all night” toy store. Yeah, I think we can all see this one coming. There’s a payoff here in humor down the road, but not a big one.

Michael (voice of David Thewlis) is in Cincinnati for a day to talk about customer service. This is every bit as exciting as it sounds. He’s a name, apparently; he’s literally written the book on customer service, but we don’t find this out until later. Michael is having a quiet and frustrating midlife crisis; it has taken the form of being standoffish to all he comes in contact with. While this is relatable, sure, it makes for bad movie watching. In between conversational dead-ends, we’re supposed to notice things, like that the people (including Michael) are robots or cyborgs – every face is divided into three sections: the hair, the forehead, and the face plate cutting across the eye-line which makes it look like everybody wears glasses. Another is that conversational patter is indistinctive – the same topics, the same intonations, and the same thoughts, and lastly that everyone in the film has the same voice (Tom Noonan) – parents, kids, girls, boys, all the same.

All the voices are the same, that is, except for two – Michael and Lisa (Jennifer Jason Leigh). What is this? Michael immediately recognizes the voice as “female” – how would he know? Has he been programmed to know? And then he reacts like a sailor on shore leave – “what’s that, penis? We need to meet her? Lead the way, then! You say you want to knock on all the doors?  Well, have at it!” I’m not kidding; one different voice and Michael is in heat and ready to throw it all away. What do we, the audience, root for here? Do we want him to have a successful affair because his bar attempt was an old flame-out? Do we sympathize with his crisis and want him to have a connection with someone who is different? Do we just want to see two puppets stripping and having sex to rekindle our fond memories of Team America: World Police?

Anomalisa is the portmanteaux of “anomaly” and “Lisa,” that which drives Michael’s behavior. I find that mildly clever, but generally uninspired — like everything else in this film. Anomalisa seemed to be making a statement about conformity and repetition in life, but it’s hard to identify the message as the action is entirely restricted to one fairly knotted up and altogether dreary man. I’m not fond of Michael as a character; and while the animation beats the heck out of Boxtrolls, the lasting impression is still a paunchy middle-aged man wiping himself down out of a shower. If that does it for you, have a blast.

♪You can look at the menu on the hotel phone
You can converse ugly and try not to groan
You can score with all folks who have the same voice
You will feel the punishment; is this Hell your choice?

And you want her and she wants you
She’s not everyone
And you want her because you’re blue
No one, no one, no one ever’s not the same♫

Rated R, 90 Minutes
D: Duke Johnson, Charlie Kaufman
W: Charlie Kaufman
Genre: A feature-length 10-minute short
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: Those fascinated with everything Charlie Kaufman
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: Fans of animation

♪ Parody inspired by “No One Is to Blame”