Anomalisa – Blu-Ray Movie Review

Michael Stone, author, travels to Cincinnati to speak at a customer service conference. Once he is separated from his mundane life, a chance encounter helps him realize what he’s been missing. Love, laughter and loneliness align in this stop-motion feature starring the voices of David Thewlis and Jennifer Jason Leigh.

Specifications

Paramount Pictures
2015, Color, Rated R, 1 hour 30 min.
DD TrueHD 5.1, 2.35:1 Aspect Ratio
Starring the voices of : David Thewlis and Jennifer Jason Leigh
Directed by: Charlie Kaufman

Rating

Entertainment:

Video:

Audio:

Extras:

Violence: No
Sex: Yes
Language: Yes

I realize that the hip, uber crowd loved this film about a man having a middle aged crisis, but I found it to be too slow and had nothing new to say about the subject. The animation is wonderful and I appreciate the time they put into making it, but the story was dull and plodding. If you expected the ending to be a big revelation…you’d be disappointed. Somewhere in the middle of the movie, Stone has sex with Lisa. That scene is given a whole story in the extras section. Yes, the puppets are “anatomically correct”, but that scene was very weird and left me feeling uncomfortable.

Was it a metaphor for mans animalistic urges? Or was it an attempt to show that we can get out of our middle age rut if we find the “right“ person? I don’t know, but claymation is a bit creepy and claymation sex is just creepier. Otherwise, our hero eventually goes home to the wife and kid, but it’s left to the viewer to decide if anything really gets resolved in Stones depressing life. Could this movie have been made with real actors? Sure, but then it would have really been boring.

Picture quality is good with some amazing detail found on the “skin” and clothing of the puppets. Colors are solid and vibrant for the most part. The sound is effective and a clip in the extras section explains how they used sounds from the characters environment to enhance the visuals.

The puppets were made from 3D printers and had interchangeable faces to help the animators with changing the expressions of the puppets. Too bad that all of this technical whizz-bang didn’t make the storyline any more interesting.

Some featurettes: None of Them are You: Crafting Anomalisa, Intimacy in Miniature and the Sound of Unease. A DVD is included as well.