Anomalisa (2015) directed by Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson
"The end is built into the beginning". A special quote that has always stuck with me from director Charlie Kaufman's preceding film and directorial debut,
Synecdoche, New York. It remains applicable in
Anomalisa as well, as we hear the repeating and muddled chatter of people in the background during both the opening and the ending, foreshadowing the themes to come and summarizing the general psyche of our main character.
We are introduced to Michael, a gloomy middle-aged fella who's ironically enough a motivational speaker in customer service. He goes to Cincinnati for business purposes and stays in the Fregoli hotel. Obviously it's no coincidence that Fregoli is the name of a rare disorder in which a person holds a delusional belief that different people are in fact a single person. However, in interviews, Kaufman stresses the fact that Michael does not actually suffer from this delusion, and I'm glad he emphasizes that, because it stops people from taking the easy way out by viewing it as a literal explanation for all of the happenings, when in reality, it should only play as a vehicle metaphor to describe Michael's distance and disconnect with his surroundings. Michael doesn't physically see an identical face in everyone around him, he shouldn't be actually hearing the same voice either, so why is it he feels that way?
It's apparent from the get-go how much Michael can't stand the small talk, he would rather be left alone than have to be subjected to the same boring redundant mechanical and lifeless conversations. He comes across as extremely arrogant for having such views, and I believe some of Kaufman's beliefs on the current state of art and cinema might have slipped into his writing of this character. He has criticized on multiple occasions Hollywood's factory made movies for their mechanical making process. They rip away the individuality of art for the sake of what's the safest road leading towards the most amount of money. It's a hard pill to swallow for a man like Kaufman who has been struggling to find sufficient funding for his projects and ideas. He's only managed to direct 3 movies in the past 14 years, and It's sad, because we're missing out. In a world where almost every film seems exactly the same, his movies continuously stand out in a refreshing way, like anomalies.
During Michael's phone call with his wife, there seems to be some yearning to communicate something else, something deeper inside. He doesn't reject her completely and is overall more patient with her than with anybody else we've seen up to that point. She is his wife after all, but more importantly, there probably was that special spark between the two in the past, and Michael although clearly unsatisfied with their current relationship, his voice indicates a hope for a return to what's before. He would trade anything in the world right now to pick up the phone and get the old Donna back, hear the voice he once loved and married. This made me have a thought experiment that relates to the Fregoli delusion and its significance: is it possible that after Michael and Donna's bond started to break, they decided to have a child as a last resort, not only to try and save their relationship, but from Michael's end he's more so experimenting on his "condition" and pushing and testing its threshold. He's creating a new pure being, and I'm sure it's for the sake of maybe creating that pure special bond with it that would put him out of his depressing misery. So the question remains, would newborns also be depicted as having the same identical face and voice in this world? I personally believe that the human spirit is something so singular, and only after it's subjected to the forces of our society is it then slowly but surely spoiled and molded into becoming a replica of the rest. As Michael stated in his speech in the end,
what does it mean to be human, truly?
While in Cincinnati, Michael is haunted by the memories of an ex-lover from before his marriage and precedes to call her and plan a meeting with her. This speaks to a couple of facts: One, Michael has been this way long before he married. Two, Michael has probably had multiple affairs during his marriage whenever he goes on his business trips, all for the sake of "healing himself". I'm sure had he gone to a different city we would've heard about a whole other ex-lover, and that's in accordance with his character as we clearly see he's in constant search for that special connection. Three, Michael is desperate. He calls Bella and disappointingly recognizes her voice as the same as everyone else's. Similarly, he obviously wouldn't recognize her as she enters the restaurant, but once she introduces herself, he lunges at her hugging her excitedly. It's a jarring action to see from a character who we just witnessed could not stand to entertain a conversation with his taxi driver, the hotel receptionist, or the bellboy. But again, it speaks to his desperation and longing for that past bond.
After the failed reconciliation between Bella and Michael, we're introduced to Lisa, and she immediately feels like such a breath of fresh air, which couldn't have possibly been achieved this successfully without suffering through the pain and boredom of our main character first. She's easily lovable, she's nervously funny, she
obviously loves Japanese, and there's a clear lot of depth to her that we can see from her body language to her tone. At one point she tells her friend Emily that she'll stick with her instead of going with Michael, and that obviously projects how she would've liked to have been treated by Em in the past during all of her escapades with the different men that keep hitting on her and giving only her that kind of attention. It's clear that this courtesy she's giving to her friend was never reciprocated before, and so this kind of intelligent social and situational awareness could only come from a person who's become very in tune with their emotions due to past trauma and hurtful experiences.
Lisa is the only character thus far to have a different looking face and a different sounding voice, so naturally Michael would gravitate towards her. However, their entire meeting and first encounter still feels like an anomaly. We don't quite understand why Michael specifically sees her differently, hears her differently. Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder of course, and again as Michael stated in his later speech,
we should look for what is special about each individual and focus on that, all that good and dandy stuff etc...but there has to be something else, right? Funnily enough, Lisa is always silencing herself in embarrassment, almost in complete opposition to every other character who seemingly can't shut up in Michael's eyes, so that contrast right there might just be what makes them perfect for each other.
As soon as they stepped together into Michael's bedroom, it became very clear to me that he is fetishizing her more than anything else. He keeps emphasizing the usage of her voice and how essential it is she keeps talking. Even during the sex he insists she makes some noises, almost implying he wouldn't enjoy it otherwise. The fact he's narrowing in on that solely and so desperately makes him come across as some sort of pervert. Lisa even calls him out when he attempts to kiss her scar. His lack of substantial relationships for so long must have turned him into this aggressive monster eager to devour anything that smells differently, not realizing he'd be ruining it in the process. This whole situation is another reason why I think the Fregoli delusion is just a metaphor. Michael's heavy infatuation with the "voices" rather than anything else leads me to believe that there's something about people's usual conversations he's disgusted by. So what is so special and unique about Lisa's words, talk, and conversation?
It could also be that Michael's libido is just a little out of control. It would explain that weird masturbation scene as he was dialing up Bella's phone number. He also made sexual advances towards her, and then immediately went to a sex shop after having been rejected. He uses the toy at some point, among other different things that could point towards that direction. Don't put it past Kaufman, that man's libido is questionable as well, remember 2001's
Human Nature.
Either way, this relationship between Michael and Lisa is dangerous just as much as it is toxic. Despite how fantastical it may seem to both parties, it is indeed too good of a story to remain true. It's a fleeting connection that has the potential of destroying Lisa's remaining self esteem if the complete truth is revealed, and sinking Michael even deeper into his depression once it reaches its final stop. And let's not be mistaken, Michael is a 100% the antagonist in this relationship, in his life, and in this entire movie in general.
After what I'd consider to be the most realistic sex scene I've ever seen in a movie, Michael happens to have a nightmare, and the sequence that follows is one of my favorites of the entire experience. It reminded me of
Being John Malkovich, especially the part where Malkovich goes into the portal and inside his own mind. They're both hilarious, haunting, and realistically nightmarish as they materialize some of our worst fears. A lot of times I can get bothered by the misuse or overuse of reincorporations as they often render the movie more artificial, but
Anomalisa is a perfect example of how to bypass that kind of problem. Most of them happen during Michael's nightmare, put forward as his subconscious retelling the defining moments of that day, like Lisa falling in the exact same spot as before, the hotel door not opening quick enough, the 90% line...Any other time a reincorporation occurs, it either brings some new information along with it, or is quite helpful at unlocking some of the film's secrets.
After waking up from that hell hole, the first thing our main character does is puff a smoke, and we've seen that be his release time and time again. Every time he lights a cigarette it's after that frustrating sense of loneliness' attempt to grab him once again. He says to Lisa, "I don't want to lose you", almost knowing what's soon about to transpire, feeling their time is slowly coming near to its end. We also realize that these kinds of nightmares have been haunting him for so long now, when Lisa points out he's been thrashing around in their bed all night, almost in the exact same wording used by his wife during their phone call.
At breakfast, Lisa's "flaws" start coming out, and although I've always had the criticism of them being revealed too suddenly and all in one instant, it could be indicative of Michael constantly turning a blind eye to their visibility beforehand, all in order to keep his happy facade intact. The acting in this scene has always amazed me. In such a sensitive moment, there's appropriately so much subtlety to the voice acting as well as the animation of their body language. Lisa's paranoia and insecurities are clear in her tone, while Michael slowly transitions into the ol' disappointed gloomy self he started as. It's a sad picture in front of us, especially when you think back to their earlier state in the restaurant. It almost brought me to tears seeing how happy Michael was during that scene, looking like he was touched by an angel. Even the mise-en-scène reflected his euphoria, with everybody else in the restaurant sitting all alone which directly contrasts his earlier meeting with Bella where he was the only one by himself. We still ask ourselves, why is it that such superficial "flaws" manage to break the strength of the magic between our two leads. I personally see it as the result of a minesweeper effect, where the uncovering of one bad trait leads to the rest detonating and emerging. Speaking of effects, the image of Lisa's face being blocked by the morning sunlight, acting almost as a transitioning fade effect, while her voice is slowly changing to Tom Noonan's...simply genius.
Now would be a good time I guess to talk a little about some of the behind the scenes, before we get into what I deem to be the most important section of the film. Before the production was even thought of,
Anomalisa was actually just a radio play written by Kaufman way back when, and only years later did the opportunity present itself to have it be made into a film. The decision to choose the animation medium is clearly appropriate and fitting, as this kind of story would've never worked in a live-action. Having it be stop motion despite its risks and dangers, especially for such a low budget, was I'm sure challenging but once again very fitting and ultimately fulfilling thematically. We witness a great demonstration of the latter in one specific scene: right after Michael's return from the sex shop (which its timing would turn out to be quite significant), and his struggling to balance out between the cold and hot water of his shower (a relatable moment for all of us I'm sure), he looks at himself in the mirror and the lower half of his puppet face starts falling off. This surreal bit comes across as our main character's loss of sanity. It looked as though he was about to give up on his individuality and start wearing the same mask as everyone else's, a sign of succumbing to his doom. We even get an illustration of what that would look like during his nightmare. The fact that he hears Lisa's voice a second before he was about to totally lose it makes it seem as an instinctive reaction from his body, at that point in survival mode, as a last attempt to save his stability.
The making took a total of 3 years, and the end product produced some accomplishments that were unprecedented. The shots of Michael running for example, their mechanism never fails to amaze and entertain me. With the limited resources causing the work environment to become a no room for error zone, it's extra impressive to see so much time given to such little and sometimes unnoticeable details. One mistake could lead to weeks if not months of setbacks, yet we still are left with moments such as Bella's bag becoming stuck to the arm of her chair for a split second, an action I estimate took at least a week to animate, and it's those kind of tiny elements that bring forward so much life to the overall experience. The only aspect I wasn't so crazy about is some of the scene transitions. While most of the editing is great, some cuts were noticeably attempting to hide what I take as production flaws. A couple of scenes' endings felt a little premature or abrupt, so there would be this merging effect that would help it transition into the following scene. It's acceptable, but as I said a little noticeable due to all the mastery surrounding it.
The voice acting was outstanding by each one of the three leads, but I have to give special props to Tom Noonan who was voicing everyone else. He ably conveyed the different characters distinctively and with the appropriate type and amount of emotions behind each one of them. It made what could've felt like a gimmick run seamlessly for a while without ever becoming apparent. You have Bella with hesitance and fear of getting hurt once again by Michael, say to him,
I don't know, and her tone alone communicates the history of hurt she's been through, all thanks to the talent behind the voice. Instead of having each actor do their own separate session, which is the most common methodology, Kaufman and Johnson decided to get their small cast of three together, and run through the script's entirety. This intimate way of working translated very well to the screen, add to that all the breathing and different mouth noises it brought along with it which were all purposely kept and animated, along with the actors' actions and body language throughout these recorded sessions.
A final fun tidbit I'd love to share would be that the form and faces of these puppet characters actually came from real life people. Michael is Duke Johnson's ex-father-in-law, Lisa is some random woman one of the producers found at a bar one night, and most importantly, everyone else's face was a photoshopped combination of crew members visages, very fitting and complimentary to the film's themes.
Back to the movie's narrative. It's time for Michael's public speech, and I can't tell you how many times in my life I've quoted parts of it in numerous different situations. It's full of soundbites. While it's nothing new as a concept or in its content, it still plays as a great climax after the accumulation of all the emotional turmoil and drama that's been built up to that point. It's a heartbreaking meltdown, sometimes even painful to watch, especially whenever we pan towards Lisa's reaction shots as he declares he has lost his love.
The ending wraps everything up nicely and gives a whole new context to the entire story. As Michael gives his son a gift upon his return, the same Japanese toy from the sex shop, semen starts dripping out of it, and all of the sudden, it clicks! The fact that we meet Lisa immediately after Michael buys the toy. The identical scar on both of their faces. The doll's singing being voiced by the same actress as Lisa's, who mind you states earlier on how much she "obviously" loves Japanese. Them not even at least talking about protection during the sex, probably because it's irrelevant, and Michael was ****ing a sex toy the entire time. So was Lisa ever real? She must've been. We even get the entire next scene from her perspective only. Did she have sex with Michael though? I don't believe so. And so that brings forward the reliability of everything and anything we witnessed in that hotel room. Did the switch from reality to fantasy happen before or after? Was it when Lisa fell on her way to Michael's room? Was it when she asked to leave? Or is it all too mixed up to definitively determine.
The ending shot is possibly the only image that truly reflects reality as it is. We see Lisa and Emily traveling in their car, both with their own unique voice and face, which gives an oomph similar to Lisa's first introduction. We've been stuck with the same three visages for an hour and a half, so it naturally feels like such a relief to finally see an actual different character. Lisa understands Michael's reasoning for leaving her and can probably explain it away as "wife, children, friends...he can't just give all of that up for me", but at the same time she doesn't understand his reasoning. How can someone be so enthusiastically crazy about her, overwhelmingly loving one second, then completely cold the next. Must've felt like all of her ideal hopes and fantasies came true for that night, and disappointingly dissipated the next morning, like a dream. On another note, I do believe it would've been much better in this final scene to have Lisa not wear that scar, confirming it was Michael's projection all along.
The end credits roll along with a piece of music that pretty much summarizes the story we just witnessed and unveils more details that might not have been as outwardly visible at first glance. It sheds a little more light on what exactly Michael doesn't like about the people, describing them as "cowards full of fear". It also puts in question Lisa's existence, with lines such as
In a dream you came and held my hand, Our love was perfect in that sphere...No I've never met you my sweet dear, And my friends they say you don't exist. I recommend re-listening to the whole song and checking out its lyrics, it's quite informative actually. Speaking of songs, I forgot to mention how much Michael loves listening to the
Flower Duet from
Lakmé, an opera that tells the tale of a forbidden love affair that meets a very similar fate to the one depicted in this film. Go figure.
The end is built into the beginning. The end credits continue rolling while repeating and muddled chatter is heard in the background. Our main character is back to exactly the same state he started in. This is my favorite movie by Kaufman, no this is one of my favorite movies of all time. A few of the director's films can feel too bloated and overloaded, *cough*
Synecdoche, NY *cough*, but
Anomalisa manages to successfully balance his best qualities. The same emotional complexity and intelligent storytelling is present here as always, but it's with absolute control, reservedness, and precision. I haven't even mentioned the dry humor or the funnier sides of the movie. Unlike in
Adam's Apples, the comedy never draws attention to itself, with the characters having just enough pop to them that makes the hilarity naturally and awkwardly develop. And the writing overall is always thinking of witty ways to communicate even the most basic happenings in different shapes and forms.