Summary
Charlie Kaufman’s films are known for leaving viewers with more questions than answers, and usually wondering about the meaning of life, identity, and the passage of time. The 2015 adult stop-motion featureAnomalisais no exception. But unlike some of his other work, this time Kaufman opts for a simpler and more linear narrative and focuses on a character study. The protagonist, Michael, is seemingly incapable of connecting with anyone around him, and although its ending implies that this may be true, it also leaves room for multiple interpretations about what actually happened during his brief time with Lisa.
While it is usually actors and directors who get the most recognition from a mainstream Hollywood audience,Charlie Kaufman became a household name from his career as a writer, with a portfolio featuring titles such asBeing John Malkovich,Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, andAdaptation. Co-directed alongside Duke Johnson,Anomalisais only Kaufman’s second film as a director, but it perfectly showcases what he does best: presenting a world that feels both deeply familiar and incredibly strange. Its ending may appear simple enough on the surface, but in typical Kaufman fashion, there is so much more behind this resolution.
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What Is Anomalisa About?
Anomalisafollows Michael Stone (David Thewlis), a deeply depressed but successful motivational speaker who, the more he helps people, the more monotone and uninteresting his perception of life becomes. Everyone looks and sounds the same to him, including his own wife and son, andhe is desperate to connect with somebody.Michael flies to Cincinnati to give a conference about his latest book at a convention. He tries to reconnect with an old flame, but he fails to do so as she turns him down. On the way back to his hotel, a drunk Michael walks into a store to buy his son a present, but to his surprise, it is an adult toy store. He is fascinated by an antique animatronic doll, which he ends up buying since he finds it different and unique.
Back in his hotel room, Michael hears a unique female voice for the first time. This catches his interest, and he rushes to find her. The voice belongs to Lisa (Jennifer Jason Leigh), an insecure womanwith a low self-esteemattending the convention. Michael sees her as different from everyone else, but only because he believes he desperately needs someone. They have dinner, and he invites her to his room. Fascinated by her distinctive voice, he asks her to sing for him. She sings a rendition ofCyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Want to Have Fun.”Lisa refers to herself as an anomaly, and Michael nicknames her Anomalisa. They have sex, and afterwards Michael falls asleep.
He has a nightmare, in which both Michael and the viewers discover why every character seems to have lines on their faces; they appear to be outlines of masks. Michael’s mask falls off and he finds out that there is nothing underneath, hinting at him that maybe it’s him who has a problem and is empty inside, and not everyone else. Everyone around him tries to pursue him and claim that he and Lisa can’t be together.
How Does Anomalisa End?
The following morning, Michael wakes up inspired by his dream and, while having breakfast together, he asks Lisa to start a new life together. He suddenly starts noticing all of her flaws that he hadn’t previously seen, which annoys him. Right before him, Lisa’s face and voice start to become the same as everyone else’s.He then gives his speech at the conference, during which he has a breakdown and mentions that people should see everyone else as unique individuals with their own feelings and emotions, something he himself struggles with.
When he returns home, his family and friends are there to meet him, but they still look exactly the same to him, and he can’t seem to recognize anyone. The film ends with Michael leaving for a moment, in which he sits alone by the stairs andstares at the doll he purchased, while everyone else socializes in the next room. Lisa writes him a goodbye letter, thanking him for the time they spent together.
This ending is ambiguous enough to be open to interpretation. It implies that Michael finally allows himself to realize that he is the problem, but nothing has changed for him. He still feels alone andincapable of connecting with anyone, but part of why he can’t do so is because he does not care about them. Throughout the movie, Michael’s interactions with others make it seem that he doesn’t see them as people. It can be argued that he doesn’t even see Lisa as a person, but as a way to escape his own issues. InSynecdoche, New York, Charlie Kaufman presents the idea that everyone is important and a lead in their own story. However, inAnomalisa, he takes this same premise to the absurd, if everyone is equally important, then no one truly matters.
One interpretation of the film suggests that Lisa isn’t real, and she is the doll Michael purchases, withtheir fleeting encounter happening entirely inside his head. Throughout the story, there are subtle coincidences that hint this may be the case, such as Michael first hearing Lisa’s voice when he is back at his hotel room right after purchasing the doll, the scar on Lisa’s face resembling a crack the doll has in the same spot, both Lisa and the doll singing, and Lisa being able to speak Japanese. When Michael returns home, it is revealed that the doll had been used. “None Of Them Are You,” the song that plays during the end credits, written by Charlie Kaufman, features lyrics about meeting someone who isn’t real in a dream. Since what really happened during that night at the hotel is never confirmed, the theory of Lisa not existing has some solid backup.
Lisa not being real could very well be the case, but there is one scene at the ending that strongly suggests that she is indeed a real person. The majority of the film is shown from Michael’s perspective, except for a brief moment where Lisa writes him a letter as she drives away in a car with her friend Emily, who now has a unique and distinctive appearance. Emily’s face being different hints that this scene is shown from Lisa’s perspective, which would make her a real person. Or perhaps it could be Michael hallucinating again and getting a sprinkle of hope for the first time. In the end,Anomalisaallows for both and more interpretations to exist simultaneously, and leaves the viewers to decide their own truth for themselves.
