Anomalisa' puts grown-up themes in hands of puppets

The idea of exploring the human condition through an R-rated stop-motion film might not occur to just anybody. But Charlie Kaufman isn't just anybody.

Kaufman's new film, "Anomalisa," swirls around a customer service expert whose trip to speak at a conference goes awry. The film, which opens in Minnesota Friday night, has some roots here.

Before Kaufman became known as the screenwriter of "Being John Malkovich," "Adaptation" and "The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," he worked in customer service. Among his jobs was one in Minneapolis.

"I certainly did have a customer service job at the Star Tribune, but I also had maybe three or four in New York before I moved to Minneapolis," he said.

Kaufman was writing scripts at the same time, honing a craft that was to later pay off in TV and film. Like many good writers, he tucked away his personal experience for possible later use. A few years ago he began considering the isolation endemic in modern society.

"There's something very sad about people's lack of connection with each other," he said. "To me it's sad. And it's sad in my life when I feel it. And it seemed interesting to me to explore it in a play."

The result was "Anomalisa." It's about a customer service expert, a transplanted Englishman named Michael Stone. He flies to Cincinnati to speak at a conference.

His message? How to improve company performance through better engagement with customers. His secret? Recognize them as individuals.

"What is it to be human?" he asks. "What is it to ache? What is it to be alive?"

The problem is that Michael Stone doesn't much like other people, because he can't see them as individuals. Kaufman said the play came together after he read about something called the Fregoli delusion, "in which a person feels that every everyone else in the world is one person. And it seemed interesting to me as a metaphor for someone's sense of disconnection to other people."

He wrote a play with many characters, but only three actors. One plays Michael Stone. A second plays Lisa, a woman he meets at the conference. The third actor plays everyone else, male and female, boosting the delusion of sameness.

Originally it was performed as a sound play: just three actors reading on a stage. However, then the script reached stop-motion animator Duke Johnson. His company was seeking new projects.

"We were looking for things that might not be traditionally explored in this medium," he said. "We were looking particularly for more adult stories."

Johnson immediately saw the visual potential. He and Kaufman became co-directors. David Thewlis signed on as the Michael Stone character. Jennifer Jason Leigh plays Lisa. She's delighted, but confused, when the star speaker at the conference takes an intense interest in her.

"I think you are extraordinary," he says in the film.

"Why?" she responds.

"I don't know yet," he says. "It's just obvious that you are."

It took just three days to prepare and record the dialog. But it then took two years of painstaking work, moving and filming 6-inch puppets, to animate the film.

The result is a very grown-up movie. It earned an R rating for nudity, language and sexual situations. Kaufman admits an intimate scene between Michael and Lisa can be uncomfortable to watch.

"It feels awkward and it feels real," he said. "And it feels like you are eavesdropping on something that you shouldn't be seeing. And I think maybe some of the discomfort that people feel is because of that."

The discomfort hasn't discouraged reviewers or awards nominators. This Sunday, "Anomalisa" is up for the Golden Globe award for best animated film. However, it's going head-to-head against the likes of "The Peanuts Movie," "Shaun the Sheep" and "Inside Out."

Charlie Kaufman is hoping "Anomalisa" will change minds about animation.

"We see this as a medium, not a genre," he said. "But we are ghettoized with kids' movies, and it's odd, you know."

But Kaufman is now a convert. He says he's looking forward to animating more grown-up stories in the future.