Recently Oscar nominated for best animated feature, this stop motion film from Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson is a long way from the sort of fayre served up by Disney or Pixar.
A bored middle-aged man, Michael Stone, arrives in Cincinatti to give a speech on customer service. Arriving the day before he checks into a posh but bland hotel. Frustrated with his marriage and with life in general he unsuccessfully tries to hook up with an old flame before he then meets and falls for a woman who is at the hotel to see his lecture.
The sense of alienation when arriving in an unfamiliar city and then staying in a corporate hotel is brilliantly realised. There are some great observations on tricky showers and key card that work only intermittently, both of which are very amusing. The rest of the film though is pretty bleak and tragic. There is some great voice work from David Thewlis as Michael and Jennifer Jason Leigh as Lisa, the woman he falls in love with.
All of the other voices are performed by Tom Noonan, and that is an excellent device for showing how isolated and desperate Michael has become.
Sad, perceptive, and with a very literate and believable script, this won’t be for everyone but is worth seeking out.
Rating: 8 out of 10