Anomalisa, a beautifully filmed and carefully constructed stop-motion, is the provocative tale of Michael Stone (David Thewlis). Stone is a motivational speaker by trade who finds himself helplessly unsatisfied with his life. He is payed to uplift the lives of others, stating that all humans are individuals that both desire and deserve happiness. This advice, so valued by all (It increased telemarketing sales by ninety percent!), is painfully ironic to both Stone and the audience as Stone is, quite literally, surrounded by clones.

By using the same face molding and voice actor (Tom Noonan) for everyone with the exception of the key characters, directors Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson clearly convey Stone's dissatisfaction with those surrounding him, as well as the life he is shackled to. Everything and everyone is the same. There is no change in his monotone world, and on a trip to a conference, he desperately attempts to find something significant by calling an old girlfriend. He asks her back to his room, attempting to find some solace, if not in his soul, then in her body. The meeting is a disaster, and Stone can do nothing but return to the hotel alone.

When he hears Lisa (Jennifer Jason Leigh), he is fresh out of the shower, fully bared to the audience as he yanks on his face, revealing the clay structure beneath. How fortuitous! In his most desperate moments, questioning his identity, his very existence, Stone hears the sound of change. The first voice in what seemed to be years has distinguished itself. Stone's reaction to Lisa, so meek and plain, is telling of his desperation.

When Stone finds Lisa he is mesmerized by her voice despite its grating pitch, and enchanted by her face, seeing past her scar and to her unique features. Lisa appears to Stone as a miracle. Finally, there is a anomalous face in sea of monochrome! So taken in by this encounter, so desperate to drink in the sound of her voice and the look of her face, Stone fails to see Lisa as a person. Lisa, in turn, fails to do the same. As a scarred telemarketer of average intelligence, Lisa too, is desperately trying to find something worthy within herself. She turns to Stone to successfully find it.

In the end is a twisted love story, not designed to last, but to comfort the two tortured souls we focus upon. Each contributes to the brief happiness of the other: Stone a reprieve from a repetitious, unsatisfying world, and Lisa, the belief that she is different, an anomaly —an Anomalisa.