"It would be great if you could write back and be my friend."

Rating: 6/10 (2 November 2017)

I can't say that this movie wasn't creatively done or didn't have some interesting thoughts to pursue with the principal characters. But to get there, you had to wade through such depressing topics as atheism, alcoholism, anti-Semitism, pre-teen sexual advice, self medicating one's troubles with drugs and booze, and suicide as a possible solution to life's troubles. And lest one can't figure out the film maker's liberal bias in dealing with these subjects, he throws in a slam at former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani by calling the mayor in this story 'Ridiculani'. The 'love yourself' message, which is a good one, sort of gets lost in the hodge-podge of letter writing activity between Mary and Max, and since the correspondence occurred over a span of twenty years, the thought that kept springing into my mind was why neither one of them came up with the idea to visit the other before so much time passed, and then in the end it was too late. The picture held out so much promise when Mary first wrote and voiced those words in my summary line to Max in her very first letter. Too bad it had to end as such a downer of a story.