Anomalisa (3/5 Stars)

Back in 2008, when I reviewed Charlie Kaufman’s “Synecdoche, New York” I wondered if he would retire. I mean what more could he say? (By the way isn’t it amazing that I can refer to a review I wrote eight years ago?) When I heard that he was coming out with a stop-motion animation movie this year, I saw a glimmer of hope that the idea was just crazy and ambitious enough to not be a let down from his previous masterpiece. Well, it was inevitably a let down. The worst thing had to be that I had to wait eight years to see it. If he had spent a year or two making this in between bigger projects I would have been totally content. But the prospect of waiting several more years for him to create something else after this movie is rather painful. I guess what I’m saying is that I want more, Charlie Kaufman. “Anomalisa” wasn’t enough. Give me more!

Michael Stone, a graying middle-aged man voiced by David Thewlis, has just landed in Cincinnatti to speak at a customer service convention. He is big stuff in the area. Several times his book is referred to as the cause of a 90% boost in efficiency. Not that the movie cares much about customer service. The choice has been made it seems for ironic purposes. Michael Stone is suffering from some kind of strange mental problem. Everyone he meets has the same face and the same voice (Tom Noonan’s). Even when he calls home he hears over the phone the same voice for his wife and son.  

The hint for what is happening is in the name of the hotel he is staying at: Fregoli. He has what is called a Fregoli delusion: wherein the sufferor sees the same face and voice for every person he meets. The one exception is a woman he meets named Lisa, voice by Jennifer Jason Leigh. She is an anomaly, hence the title: Anomalisa. He immediately falls in love.

It does take awhile for this to be set up. The first half of the movie attempts to establish the dullness of this man’s life and accomplishes the task. In the second half he meets Lisa, they involve themselves in a not so torrid love affair, and the very next day over breakfast her face and voice tragically turns into Tom Noonan’s.

At that point I was rather interested in what was happening. In particular, there is a dream sequence that is funny and exciting. But too bad, the movie ends with no third act or resolution. Some more astute friends of mine observed that the Fregoli delusion was just a metaphor for his sad relations with women. I noted with some disappointment that this mundane explanation was more likely than my apparent misunderstanding that the movie was literally about the Fregoli delusion. I feel it would have been a more interesting movie if it were literally about the Fregoli delusion. Oh, well. 

I really hope it will not be another eight years for the next Charlie Kaufman movie to come about.