I love the writer Charlie Kaufman, but I'm not as enamored of the director Charlie Kaufman, who indulges his worst tendencies in a way others won't.
Anomalisa starts very slowly, as middle-aged Michael comes into Cincinnati to give a lecture. The movie has a great love for the mundane, so we get a taxi driver giving advice, we get Michael's checking in and ordering dinner, we get an uncomfortable dinner with an ex.
The only notable thing in the early part of this animated drama is that everyone Michael meets is voiced by one actor, both men and women. Only Michael has a unique voice. Then he meets a young, insecure woman who also has a unique voice (wonderfully done by Jennifer Jason Leigh), and this leads to bland conversation and a rather long sex scene.
After all that, I was bored and restless, but then the movie picks up, offering a fascinating scene in the hotel basement after which the movie is weird, funny, sad, and brutally honest.
In both Anomalisa and Synecdoche, Kaufman proves he's comfortable with boring people before getting around to giving Kaufman's fans what they have come to expect from him through movies like BJM and Adaptation. This movie is a slight step up from Synecdoche, but it's still disappointing, although perhaps worth watching anyway.
Anomalisa starts very slowly, as middle-aged Michael comes into Cincinnati to give a lecture. The movie has a great love for the mundane, so we get a taxi driver giving advice, we get Michael's checking in and ordering dinner, we get an uncomfortable dinner with an ex.
The only notable thing in the early part of this animated drama is that everyone Michael meets is voiced by one actor, both men and women. Only Michael has a unique voice. Then he meets a young, insecure woman who also has a unique voice (wonderfully done by Jennifer Jason Leigh), and this leads to bland conversation and a rather long sex scene.
After all that, I was bored and restless, but then the movie picks up, offering a fascinating scene in the hotel basement after which the movie is weird, funny, sad, and brutally honest.
In both Anomalisa and Synecdoche, Kaufman proves he's comfortable with boring people before getting around to giving Kaufman's fans what they have come to expect from him through movies like BJM and Adaptation. This movie is a slight step up from Synecdoche, but it's still disappointing, although perhaps worth watching anyway.