ANOMALISA B+
USA (90 m) 2015 ‘Scope d: Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson
USA (90 m) 2015 ‘Scope d: Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson
The mind is its own
place, and in itself
Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.
Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.
—John Milton from Paradise
Lost, 1667
A sad and even mournful film about conformism, alienation,
and the lack of individuality, leading to a suffocatingly isolated view illustrating
the anguish and heartache of human existence, given an even more improbable
look when the film is expressed completely through animation and identical
looking stop-motion puppets, where a similar metaphorical theme of seeing the
world through the eyes of puppets originated in Kaufman’s outlandish screenplay
for BEING JOHN MALKOVICH (1999). Perhaps
even more infuriating, outside of two lead characters, Michael Stone voiced by
David Thewlis, who is in every single shot except the last, and Lisa, voiced by
Jennifer Jason Leigh, all the rest of the voices in the film, male and female,
are performed by a single actor, Tom Noonan, suggesting not only does everyone
else look alike, but they sound alike as well, as if he’s locked in a
self-imposed purgatory (like being inside the head of John Malkovich) where all
other voices and faces are indistinguishable.
Additionally, Noonan sings a hauntingly melancholic song that plays over
the end credits, “None of Them Are You,” ANOMALISA 2016
MOVIE SOUNDTRACK (05. None of ... YouTube (4:06). Adapted from an original hour-long “radio
play” written by Kaufman under the pseudonym of Francis Fregoli that was
performed before an audience only twice in Los Angeles in September, 2005, the
same year the movie is set, the film script is nearly identical to the
theatrical version, even to the use of the same three actors, expanded an
additional half-hour with choreographed visuals, seemingly simplicity itself, yet
remaining dense and surprisingly concise.
While not overtly revealed, the film introduces the audience to a rare
psychological disorder known as Fregoli delusion,
the belief that different people are in fact a single person who continually changes
appearance. While Buñuel had wicked fun
with the idea of a continually shape-shifting Satan (played by Silvia Pinal!)
following a beleaguered saint in Simon of the Desert (Simón
del Desierto) (1965), literally hounding him into Hell, this condition
suggests an inability to look beyond the detached limitations of one’s own
loneliness and perpetual self-loathing, a projection of one’s own internal
unhappiness, continually feeling disconnected and disassociated from others around
you, where you are in effect stuck inside your own head, which is an extreme
variation on Sartre’s existential No Exit.
Opening to a
black screen and the continuous sound of random voices and conversations, Michael
Stone is a lonely, middle-aged man from Los Angeles on an overnight business
trip to a nondescript city of Cincinnati, a customer service guru, father, and
author who has written a successful self-help book, How May I Help You Help Them? While he plans to give a motivational speech
the next morning to a hotel convention of customer service workers, he has
mixed feelings about the drabness of his own life, which seems defined by a
monotony of sameness, as everyone he encounters looks and sounds exactly the
same, with minor discrepancies. The name
of the hotel he stays at is called The Fregoli Hotel, a subtle suggestion of
sorts, perceived as an oasis of emptiness, as he immediately hits the ice-machine
and mini-bar, pouring himself a drink while switching on the TV, where in a
moment of brilliance, an old black and white movie is playing, the screwball
comedy MY MAN GODFREY (1936), weirdly populated by puppets instead of people,
where the audience gets a whiff of what the director has in mind. Not wishing to be alone, Michael summons the
courage to call an old flame, still carrying a furious letter of rejection from
years past, and decides to meet Bella at the hotel bar. Played with the voice of a man, where the
look of the puppets may as well be androgynous, it’s not even clear that she’s
a woman, where the idea of a secret gay affair is actually much more
intriguing, but Bella remains in a hurt and vulnerable state, even after all
these years, and is offended once she realizes Michael’s intentions are to have
sex, walking out indignantly, leaving Michael in even more of a depressive
swoon. Going for a walk to a nearby toy
store, hoping to pick up something for his young son, he’s a bit surprised that
it’s an adult toy store, becoming fascinated by the unique beauty of an armless
and partially broken Japanese sex doll that has to be one of the strangest and
most mysterious inclusions in this film, as Michael is more curiously attracted
to the doll, which may be his only friend in the world, than even his wife and
son who he calls at home, where he appears stuck in a loveless relationship
with a complete disconnection to his young son.
In a moment of conflicting ambiguity, where he may or may
not have had an experience with the sex doll (where you may not trust anything
that follows, for that matter), Michael showers afterwards, but rushes out of
his room when he hears the sound of a woman’s voice, knocking on random doors
until he discovers the source, a young, insecure woman named Lisa, where he’s
literally mesmerized by the unique sound of her voice. If truth be told, Jennifer Jason Leigh has a
terrific sounding voice, which along with her blunt honesty is one of her
strongest attributes, but here she plays an awkward but rather ordinary woman
named Lisa with a pleasantly sunny disposition, in stark contrast with
Michael. She and her friend Emily are
customer service reps for an Akron baked goods company and have driven for
hours across the state just to hear him speak at the convention, where they are
intimately familiar with his book. After
inviting them for drinks, where he’s viewed as something of a celebrity,
Michael invites Lisa back to his room, much to her surprise, claiming men are
usually more interested in Emily. But
there is something especially vulnerable and self-deprecating about Lisa, as
she openly acknowledges she’s not pretty, or the least bit smart or special, so
she’s caught by surprise that Michael finds her “extraordinary.” When asked why, he can only utter, “I don’t
know yet. It’s just obvious to me that
you are.” Still infatuated by the sound
of her voice, he encourages her to sing something, so she softly sings Cyndi
Lauper’s “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” ANOMALISA 2016 MOVIE
SOUNDTRACK (08 ... - YouTube (4:02) in both English and
Italian, which leads to the centerpiece of the film, an awkwardly shy and
tender scene of lovemaking. The
naturalness of this scene is easily the most ambitious aspect of the film,
where the use of inanimate objects to project the swirling feelings of love,
which is perhaps the most human of all experiences, is quite astonishing for
the rush of emotions generated onscreen, reminiscent of Claire Denis’s overtly
sensuous film about a one-night stand, FRIDAY NIGHT (Vendredi Soir)
(2002). As the lone voice standing apart
from the others, Michael considers her something of an anomaly, stringing
together the film title as a play on words, both falling madly in love with
each other afterwards, where she’s perceived as a “Goddess in Heaven,” or an
answer to his prayers. A nightmarish
dream sequence sends a chill in the air, however, so by the time he gives his
speech, Michael’s internal world is at war with itself, meandering into unintelligible
asides, losing all focus, resulting in an embarrassing public spectacle where
his brain appears to be spinning out of control. The final scenes feel abrupt and couldn’t be
more tragic and heartbreaking, leading to Tom Noonan’s mournful song over the
end credits, “None of Them Are You,” ANOMALISA 2016 MOVIE
SOUNDTRACK (05. None of ... YouTube (4:06), leaving the audience with
a stark glimpse of a hidden side of ourselves that we rarely see.
