In the world of Michael Stone, the man at the cetnre of Charlie Kaufman's low-key but incredibly affecting film Anomalisa, everyone has the same voice and indistinct face. It's a measure of his level of alienation from the world around him, ironic (or perhaps inevitable) given his success as an expert in customer services. It's only when Stone (voiced with droll conviction by David Thewlis) meets Lisa (Jennifer Jason Leigh) that we meet another character with, well, character. Their awkward, tentative relationship plays out through the movie, peppered with Kaufman's trademark dark humour and intuitively echoing what it is to be lonely in a faceless city. Anomalisa is made an even more unique experience on account of its naturalistic production design, with drab hotels and sterile airports making up the locations. Stripped of any dominant colours it's a perfect setting for such a melancholy tale.
