Darkly humorous yet heartwarming tale about two struggling souls

Rating: Null/10 (22 June 2017)

A movie such as this one is a rare treat. A completely original - albeit inspired by the director's own life - movie from a first-time feature-length director that completely blows you away with its uniqueness, wit and charm. Mary and Max tells the story of its titular characters. Mary being a lonely Australian girl living with her two dysfunctional parents. One of them an alcoholic and the other a complete shut-in practically living in the backyard shed. One day Mary, on a childish whim, decides to write to a random American person. Except that the person on the other side decides to write back. He's Max, an obese forty-something man living alone in New York and suffering from crippling mental health problems.
Sound creepy and depressing? Yeah, it does. And yet the thing is, this is one of the most heartwarming and sympathetic movies I've seen in my life. It's also one of the funniest. It is said that something cannot be funny without someone suffering. And boy is that true here. The film's humour is amazingly dark, drawing most of its laughs from the sheer dysfunctionality of its characters and their feeble attempts at improving their lot in life.
And yet... yet it is never mean spirited. Mary and Max suffer, that much is true, but they very rarely let it get to them. And when they do, it's a genuinely sorrowful moment because at that point it's more than earned. And thus the movie is about living your life and finding happiness despite everything standing in your way. It's about individuality, about human worth, about friendship and the purpose of caring.
It's also phenomenally well-made. It's stop-motion clay animation from start to finish with heavy emphasis being put on the use of colour, facial animation and stuff actually being there. And it looks gorgeous. A true testament to the strength of craftsmanship in this age of computer effects.
Mary and Max is a true masterpiece. A film juggling both light and dark, examining both the best and worse qualities of human existence, all with a kind voice and a gentle laugh. A film no one's going to regret seeing.