dir. Charlie Kaufman & Duke Johnson, Paramount Animation
The world of Anomalisa is full of people, full of faces, full of connections that are somewhat unreachable to Michael Stone, a customer service pioneer. There may be faces, bodies, and voices surrounding Mr. Stone, but none of them stand out, nor do they fit in with his desires and expectations. The world is bleak, exhausting, and a torment. Michael may not be physically alone, but he’s lonely; there’s no one he can bond with since no one seems to be interesting or important to him. However, Lisa, a woman he meets during a business trip, does not fit in the world and is an “anomaly.”, at least in Michael’s eyes.
The production team illustrates this amazingly in an incredibly creative way. First, the cast presents the theme with the use of only one person. Everyone in this film besides Lisa and Michael is voiced by the same mundane, monotone voice. The design of these characters is incredibly well done through the magic of animation. All the characters have eerily identical faces and shapes. Everyone may have different hair and styles but overall have the same vacant expression. The design shows and doesn’t tell how lonesome Micheal’s world is. There is absolutely no one, and everyone is just some empty carbon copy of each other with no depth.
Elsewhere, Lisa and Michael have distinct, different faces and voices. Micheal is old and worn out. Irritated by everything, he is looking for any glimpse of happiness and nurture. A glimpse of a relationship, some beacon he can connect to, talk to, and relate to. This is where Lisa comes in. In Micheal’s perceptions, Lisa pops out and is the only sweet and unique experience. Her face is “pretty,” even if she doesn’t believe it. Lisa seems to be full of life and quirks that only make Micheal fall in love with her, knowing that there’s something extraordinary. Due to her individuality, she becomes the main love interest.
SPOILERS AHEAD
Micheal is a married man who has lost spark with his wife and son. In fact, it’s pretty evident he lost all spark with the setting around him. During the film, he tries to reconnect in the valleys of romance and pleasure in his business travel. Anomalisa is one of those rare, wonderful films that are up to interpretation. It could mean a lot of things for each audience member. At first, Micheal wants to reconnect with his ex-girlfriend Bella. A weird thing to do as a married man, according to her. Obviously, this doesn’t go smoothly. Michael doesn’t want to sleep with someone necessarily. He is looking for that spark you have when you find someone you love. He needs to connect with a person again.
Though, on the same night, he meets Lisa. An anomaly in this world. Despite only meeting her hours ago, Michael confesses he is in love with her. There is no one else like her. In his view, his wife and child are only facades of people; they don’t exist as real people and are only robotic copies of a disposable human. In his one-day stay in Cincinnati, Michael has an affair with Lisa, a night full of newfound intimacy and prosperity. The morning after, Michael settles it; he will leave his wife for a brand new life with the only woman that matters.
I love the dialogue and overall character design that the director(s) decided to stick with. Lisa has a scar on her side that she covers with her hair, displaying an imperfect human being. Her otherness is fetishized, as Micheal tries to kiss her scar and likes to listen to her voice, not to what she is saying. In contrast, the dialogue with everyone else is only an irritation to Michael; he is annoyed at the vain conversations he has to have every day. My favorite pieces of dialogue in this movie are Michael’s speech at the business conference and breakfast with Lisa, where everything falls apart. Michael discovers Lisa’s unlikeable eating habits or, in other terms, her flaws. She has minor quirks that can be unpleasing, like speaking with her mouth full. At this moment, Lisa’s voice starts to morph into everyone else’s, and Micheal starts to lose her.
He proceeds to perform his speech at the conference about customer service—an ironic subject for him to be an expert at. Micheal talks about how every customer is an individual you can relate to, something he clearly doesn’t believe. Every customer has a voice, body, aches, heart, childhood, and mind, and he can’t see ANY of that in his real life. Micheal shatters. He asks, what is to live? What is it to ache? What is it to be human? He admits to a crowd of strangers that he is love is gone and that he has no one to talk to. He wants to cry, but he can’t. No tears are coming from his eyes that could free him from his torment. He strangely puts this feeling with the phrase, “It’s like not being able to come”. That is the perfect sentence to describe that feeling. Anxiety just sits in someone’s stomach and their throat, while that feeling where you know something is going to happen, but then it doesn’t, and you sit there waiting, but it doesn’t come.
Michael leaves Cincinnati without Lisa and returns to his bitter life because he realized that she was turning into everyone else and was flawed. Michael’s problem is that he never really meets anyone. He rejects Lisa once her unappealing mannerisms appear, not realizing that people’s flaws are what make them unique. No one can fit Michael’s expectations because no one is perfect. What happened in the hotel was that Michael was willing to find a bond with really anyone that seemed to shine; it didn’t matter who they were. He is destined to live a bleak and lonely life. Anomalisa is a film about having control over partners & your surroundings and trying to shape them into being what would perfect for yourself. However, in doing that, you only lose what you already have.
Final Score: 4.5/5
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