Anomalisa (15)

four stars

Dirs: Charlie Kaufman, Duke Johnson

Voices: David Thewlis, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tom Noonan

Runtime: 90 minutes

ANIMATED films aimed at adults have not had much of a look-in since the Academy created the Oscar for best animated feature in 2001. Bar a few nominations, notably for the Scots-French comedy drama The Illusionist in 2010 and the love story Chico and Rita in 2011, it has been films aimed at family audiences which have taken the prizes. As it should be, you might argue. Cinema has to grab its audience young, the better to keep them down the years.

Anomalisa, therefore, was something of a fitting anomaly when it appeared among the nominations for this year’s Oscar. In the event, first prize went to Inside Out. There is never any shame in being beaten by a Pixar. Being runner-up aside, Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovich, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless mind) and Duke Johnson’s tale is an outstanding piece in its own right - poignant, telling, and painfully on the money when it comes to ennui, that curse of the affluent middle aged. This is a midlife crisis beautifully rendered in stop-motion animation. Beat that, Wallace and Gromit.

The British actor David Thewlis (Macbeth, Harry Potter) plays Michael Stone, a one-time salesman whose job these days is marketing himself as a customer help service guru. This involves him travelling from one conference hotel to another, with every job and room seeming the same. Indeed, everything everywhere looks similar to disillusioned, weary Michael, a fact which Kaufman and Johnson convey cleverly by having every other character voiced by the same actor (Tom Noonan). “Everything’s boring,” Michael tells an ex-girlfriend he calls on to meet for drinks.

Although discombobulating at first, the approach pays off when the story gets going. While wending his sapped way from mini-bar to conference lectern one day, Michael overhears a voice in the corridor which has the same effect as a burst of cool, clear Mozart piercing its way through the noise of a traffic jam. Michael is stopped in his tracks. As if struck by love, he must find this person and talk to them.

The individual in question is Lisa Hesselman (voiced by Jennifer Jason Leigh, seen most recently in The Hateful Eight, for which she was Oscar nominated), who is a a telesales delegate at the conference. For Lisa, who does not get out much these days, the conference is as good as a holiday. Keen to learn and meet new people, she is Michael’s opposite in many ways.

Anomalisa started life as a 2005 play by Kaufman (writing as Francis Fregoli) and its transformation into a film was part crowdfunded. You can only imagine what the pitch to a big studio might have been like otherwise. “It’s about some sad sack guy stuck in a hotel in the middle of nowhere? Like Lost in Translation without any of the glamour? Puh-lease, who is going to pay to see that?”

Fortunately, Kaufman and Johnson kept the faith in their idea and the result is a gently amusing wonder to behold. While working in animation frees a director to some extent, the other hurdles, creating believable characters and having them behave in plausible, engaging ways, is the same, and on that score Anomalisa triumphs. Indeed, Kaufman and Johnson go far beyond what one expects to see in an animated movie (do bear in mind, when you are considering who to take along, that this is a 15 certificate).

Kaufman does not deal in straightforward answers to simple questions and Anomalisa, true to form, takes its own time to settle into a pace and style of its choosing. It is a rhythm which requires patience at first, but ultimately the rewards are rich. This would be an ambitious picture even without the animation. With it, the film is given an added layer of distinctiveness. The animated characters, far from seeming alien, are so well drawn they demand to be examined closely and at length. After a while, one forgets they are not flesh and blood and they, too, bleed when it comes to life and love.