ANOMALISA. (2015) BASED ON CHARLIE KAUFMAN'S 2005 PLAY. DIRECTED BY CHARLIE KAUFMAN AND DUKE JOHNSON. SCREENPLAY BY CHARLIE KAUFMAN.
STARRING DAVID THEWLIS, JENNIFER
JASON-LEIGH AND TOM NOONAN. DISTRIBUTED BY PARAMOUNT PICTURES. REVIEW
BY SANDRA HARRIS. ©
Ever seen two puppets having sex? With
each other, that is? No? Well, you will in this film.
But let's not skip to the good stuff straight away. We've got some
basic housekeeping to attend to first, haha. You know, the
bits where I say what an extraordinary film this is, and so on and so
forth. In the case of ANOMALISA, this
really is an
extraordinary film and I'm glad I had the chance to see it.
It's in
stop-motion animation, believe it or not, but it's definitely not a
film for kids. It's been nominated for a slew of awards including the
biggie, the Oscar, and it's actually won the Grand Jury Prize at the
72nd
Venice International Film Festival. It's been well received at
festivals generally and it's won one quite funny award as well, which
I'll tell you about in a bit. Not to
keep you hanging on or anything, you understand!
The story
concerns an ordinary chap called Michael Stone who's having a mid-life crisis, He's probably pushing
fifty and he's married with a young son. He's also unbearably lonely and clearly
not happy with the way his life's turned out.
He's an
expert in the area of customer service and he's even written a book
called 'HOW CAN I HELP YOU TO HELP THEM?' It
sounds like something good old Dr. Phil might have penned, doesn't it?
Anyway,
Michael's currently in Cincinatti to speak at a customer service
convention and he's staying in a place called the Fregoli Hotel.
That's where he meets the titular Anomalisa... And,
incidentally, takes a shower in which we totally see his puppet
willy...! Shame
on you, Professor Lupin out of HARRY POTTER.
Lisa
Hesselman is a sales rep who hasn't had either sex or a relationship
in eight years. She's socially awkward and likes a drink or five,
probably to take her mind off her lack of success with men. She's
thrilled to bits when she meets Michael, the writer she's come to
hear speak at the convention, by chance at the hotel where they're
both staying.
The two
hit it off and end up in Michael's room, where they do have
sex. That slightly funny award I mentioned was bestowed upon the film
by the Alliance Of Women Film Journalists for
The Best Depiction Of Nudity, Sexuality Or Seduction.
The sex
between Michael and the woman he's fallen in love with straightaway
is neither romantic nor glamorous. It's awkward, it's embarrassing
and it's totally real. We've
all had sex like that and I personally think the award was well
deserved.
It's hard not to goggle in disbelief, though, when the
Michael puppet's face disappears for a bit between the Lisa puppet's
legs...! A (sort
of) cunning linguist who just happens to be a puppet? That truly is something you don't see every day.
Michael
has to decide whether to leave his wife and son for a fresh start
with Anomalisa, whose nickname I shouldn't explain to you. You can
probably guess, however, that the socially awkward sales rep is
quirky, idiosyncratic and eccentric and is a total 'anomaly'
in a society of conventional and
boring clones who all just look and sound the same.
Before
Michael met Lisa, in fact, everyone he met was starting to blend into
everyone else and everyone sounded exactly the same to him. That's not
surprising, in a way, as every character but the two main ones is
voiced by a chap called Tom Noonan. I was wondering for ages why Michael's
wife and young son both sounded like an adult male! It took me a
while to work out the significance of this. Me slow...!
The
film captures perfectly the bleakness of a life from which the fun,
the adventure, the excitement and even the love has disappeared.
Michael and Lisa are two desperately lonely ships that pass in the
night. Should they accept their one night of passion for what it is,
an oasis of love and life and living
in an otherwise grey existence, or should they try to make something
more of it? That's the question at the kernel of this
once-in-a-lifetime little film.
The
character of Lisa is annoying at first ('Shut up, Lisa!)
but then we get to know and like
her. She's expertly voiced by Jennifer Jason Leigh, an actress I'll
always remember for her roles in the two superb psychological
horror-thrillers DOLORES CLAIBORNE and
SINGLE WHITE FEMALE.
Check out the painful reunion between Michael and his still-hurt ex, Bella, and Michael's somewhat baffling meeting with the hotel manager. These are two stand-out scenes in a terrific movie. I wasn't crazy about Charlie Kaufman's other film, BEING JOHN MALKOVICH, but I do love this.
ANOMALISA is
coming out on DVD and BLU-RAY on 11th
July 2016, courtesy of CURZON:
ARTIFICIAL
EYE. A veritable shedload of
extra features are included, free gratis and for nothing. Well, at no
extra cost, anyway. My official verdict? It's well worth a few quid
and ninety minutes of your time. Here endeth the
lecture...!
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY OF SANDRA
HARRIS.
Sandra Harris is a Dublin-based novelist, film blogger and movie reviewer. She has studied Creative Writing and Film-Making. She has published a number of e-books on the following topics: horror film reviews, multi-genre film reviews, womens' fiction, erotic fiction, erotic horror fiction and erotic poetry. Several new books are currently in the pipeline. You can browse or buy any of Sandra's books by following the link below straight to her Amazon Author Page:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B015GDE5RO
You can contact Sandra at:
http://sandrafirstruleoffilmclubharris.wordpress.com
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