A poignant treatise on friendship and loneliness that is rich with dark and subtle humor

Rating: 9/10 (7 October 2014)

Mary Daisy Dinkle (Bethany Whitmore/ Toni Collette) is an unfortunate 8-year old living in Mount Waverly Australia in 1976. Her mother is an alcoholic, chain-smoking kleptomaniac and her father is a reclusive blue collar worker who attaches the strings to tea packets. Mary has no friends. Despite having an unfortunate birthmark on her forehead and generally being teased and bullied by the other children at school, Mary is an incredibly curious child that is keen on learning everything she can about the world.
One day while her mother is out 'borrowing' supplies from the local post-office, Mary hits upon the idea of writing someone on the other side of the world to ask whether or not babies come from the same place as they do in Australia. According to her grandfather, who has recently passed away at the start of the film, babies come from the bottom of beer glasses, a fact that Mary is utterly intrigued by and one she is compelled to explore further.
After randomly selecting a prospective pen-pal in New York City, she sends her crudely scribbled inquiries to a Mr. Max Jerry Horowitz (Phillip Seymour Hoffman), as well as a bar of chocolate. Max is a morbidly obese, middle-aged Jew-turned-Athiest that lives alone at the top of a decaying domicile. He attends Overeaters Anonymous meetings and is prone to severe anxiety attacks. Plagued by his eccentricities and his inability to form meaningful relationships with anyone, Max is gripped by a sudden uncontrollable panic attack after reading Mary's letter. Eventually he responds to his new pen-pal and the two begin a correspondent friendship that last several decades.
I believe Mary and Max to be one of those rare treasures you stumble upon accidentally and never quite forget. Its an absolutely beautiful story rich in both the mastery and detail of the animation and also memorable character development. Elliot does a superb job of crafting characters that are ultimately shaped by their idiosyncrasies. Also the atmospheres he create for both Mary and Max make you fully appreciate the respective isolation felt by each title character. In one realm you have Max's noirish New York that represents his inherent pessimism and distrust. With Mary you have a muted Sepia feeling that represents parental neglect and abandonment.
It's a clever black comedy that left me incredibly refreshed and pleased with my Saturday Night.
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