Anomalisa

Animated like fluffy warmhearted cheer, hummingbird hugs, biscuity blankets, fireside chats while reading pulpy novels, luminescently gliding through the snow with delicate ease and relaxed disregard, a friendly shake, inchoate snuggles, a drive through the country, constitutionally clasped in balm.

Animation at odds with its subject matter, for discontent haunts motivational speaker Michael Stone (David Thewlis), his aged soul overcome by excessive mundanity, plagued by routine doubts, wondering how to reclaim stark serenity.

On a trip to Cincinnati, where an old flame inextinguishably radiates.

But he's lost touch with the other, with politesse, decorum, and doesn't know he's become a full-on perv.

Yet fate still forgives his aggressive libido, and uniquely introduces unexpected novelty.

Manticore.

The result, Anomalisa, a masterful display of understated comedy.

You don't know if you should be supportive, outraged, condescending, repulsed, nimble, sick, saddened, morose.

Such an odd collection of random interactions, ambiguity pruriently stabilized, imaginative independence locked-down and slung, as the borders separating freedom and responsibility slowly and spontaneously fade.

Fun.

There's only one thing Michael finds fun anymore and its ephemeral foundations interject disingenuous ennui.

Jaded conflict.

Obsessive ebb and flow.

Unction.

No way out.

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