Mary and Max

Plot synopsis:
A narrator (Barry Humphries) introduces us to Mary Daisy Dinkle (Bethany Whitmore), a charming and personable 8 year-old girl living in Mount Waverly, Melbourne, Australia. She resides in a quaint house with her mother, Vera (Renée Geyer), a dissheveled kleptomaniac who is addicted to sherry and includes it in nearly all of her dastardly cooking, and her father, Noel, who spends much of his time locked away in an outdoor shed drinking and performing taxidermy on birds that he's found dead on the freeway. At school, Mary is often made fun of for an unfortunate birthmark on her forehead. With no friends besides her pet rooster, Ethel, and the lack of support from her parents, Mary finds solace in food, including condensed milk, and her favorite television show, the Noblets. She creates her own toys and fantasizes about one day marrying a man named Earl Grey, after her favorite tea, and living in a castle in Scotland.Max Jerry Horowitz (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is a 44 year-old, morbidly obese man living in New York City in a small apartment. He also enjoys watching the Noblets but suffers from social anxieties and has no friends besides his goldfish Henry VIII, who has sadly just passed away. Max decides to quickly buy another fish and name him Henry IX before indulging in another chocolate hotdog to help him sleep.One day, while accompanying her mother as she 'borrows' envelopes from the local post office, Mary decides to write a letter to someone in America, after wondering what the country was like. She happens upon the name 'Max Horowitz' from the directory just as Vera is caught stuffing envelopes up her dress. Mary grabs the address from the book as her mother grabs her and flees the post office. At home, Mary writes her introductory letter to Max and includes in her package a drawing of herself and a chocolate bar as a token of friendship.Meanwhile, Max has just arrived home from his weekly Overeaters Anonymous meeting particularly disturbed due to unwanted flirtations from a woman in his class. Max doesn't understand most social cues and finds people perplexing and complicated. Upon finding and reading Mary's letter, Max becomes even more unsettled and resorts to swaying in a corner, something he does to calm himself in the face of a stressful event. However, after calming himself, Max sits down to his typewriter and begins writing out a reply to Mary. He answers all of her questions to the best of his ability while describing his life. Besides his fish Henry, Max shares the apartment with a few snails, a parakeet, a one-eyed cat, and an imaginary friend named Mr. Ravioli who spends his time reading in the corner since Max's psychiatrist informed Max that he didn't need him anymore. Max writes that he was born Jewish but has since become an atheist, although he still wears his yarmulke since it keeps his head warm. He sends out his letter and encloses some photos and the recipe to his chocolate hotdogs.The letter arrives on Mary's doorstep a few days later, only to be picked up and read by Vera, who is not impressed by whom she thinks is a nutcase writing to her daughter. She promptly throws the letter in the trash. The next morning before school, Mary helps bring the trash out to the curb and, when it is accidentally knocked over, discovers the crumpled letter from Max. She hides it from her mother and reads it in private later on, savoring every word. She writes back and informs Max to mail his letters to her elderly neighbor so that her parents don't discover them. Mr. Len Hislop is a WWII veteran who lost his legs while being dangled over a school of pirahna as a prisoner of war. Since then, he's been confined to a wheelchair and suffers from agoraphobia, so Mary delivers his mail for him. In her letter, Mary describes how she is teased at school and asks Max for any advice and if he's ever been teased. This question is unsettling to Max to a severe degree since it brings supressed memories to the surface of when he was bullied as a child. After calming down, he writes a reply and attaches the pompom Mary made to the top of his yarmulke. He suggests that Mary tell her teasers that her birthmark is actually made of chocolate, which means that she will be in charge of all of it when she gets to heaven. Mary's reply, which includes a happy conclusion to her bullying and a proclamation of love for her Greek neighbor Damien Popodopolous (Eric Bana) leaves Max with an anxiety attack that renders him emotionally and psychologically numb. He is institutionalized for 8 months and given advanced treatment (cue electric shock therapy) while Mary waits and wonders what's become of him. Eventually, she falls into a depression, as Max is diagnosed with his own, and tries to erase all evidence of their friendship.Mary and Max continue on with their lives for some time, each trying to cope with their troubles. While Mary pouts in self-loathing, Max finds himself facing manslaughter charges when his air conditioning unit falls out of his window and crushes a mime. However, due to his mental deficiencies, he is pardoned. Shortly after, Max is astonished to see that he's won the lottery and puts his newfound wealth to good use. He buys the entire collection of Noblets action figures and a lifetime supply of chocolate. He gives the rest of his wealth to his elderly and nearly blind neighbor, Ivy, who indulges in every personal luxury before passing away and willing her fortune to a local cat shelter whose owner pockets every cent. Despite his wealth in chocolate and Noblets, Max feels unfulfilled until he figures out that his friendship with Mary, while unsettling, was incomparable and, with the encouragement of his psychiatrist, writes another letter. He apologizes for his absence and explains that he was recently diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome. He lists the various traits along with a lamentation for being unable to cry properly. Elated to have finally received another letter, Mary responds and encloses a vial of her own tears as a gift to Max. Over the years they continue to write and Max learns to deal with the slightest hint of anxiety that Mary's letters might encourage.However, while Max's world continues as normal, if not in an improving manner, Mary's life bec0o11111111mes more complicated. First comes the passing of her father who is swept away by a rogue wave while metal detecting on a beach, this coming shortly after he quit his job at the tea factory. Mary is left a sum of money and uses it to go to university to study mental disorders. Over time, she tries to gain the romantic attention of her neighbor Damien, to no avail and often with embarassing consequences, leaving her to sob alone in her room. Her failed attempts at romance leave her to lament that she wasted her savings to have her birthmark surgically removed and resigns herself to the fact that love is not for her. Meanwhile, Vera, after suffering prolonged grief and remorse for her husband, accidentally swallows a bottle of formaldehyde, mistaking it for her sherry. Still, this tragedy encouarages Damien to comfort Mary and the two soon fall in love and are married.Mary (Toni Collette) writes that her life is now perfect with Damien, who has a pen-pal of his own in New Zealand. Her self esteem is blossoming and her studies at university have culminated into a goal to cure the world of mental illness. She writes her thesis on Asperger's Syndrome and uses Max as a case study, eventually writing her own book on the disability. She sends her first copy to Max but, upon seeing it, he is flung into an uncontrollable rage. He never thought he had a 'disability' and finds the matter surrounding his difference offensive. Unable to put his thoughts coherently to paper, Max sends his 'M' key to Mary just as she is about to visit him in New York. His silent but powerful message sends Mary into a deep depression and she takes all of her book copies to an industrial shredder and destroys them. She finds solace in two-minute noodles and sherry and wallows in her self loathing until one day she suddenly notices that Damien has left her, explaining in a letter that he's fallen in love with his pen-friend Desmond and has gone to live with him on his sheep farm.Meanwhile, Max has since overcome his anger and decides to write Mary back. He sends her his entire collection of Noblet figures as a sign that he's forgiven her and, as he counts the stars after sending his package, suddenly feels complete.As the package arrives on Mary's doorstep, Mary prepares to hang herself, unaware that she is pregnant. Her neighbor, Len, notices her package on the doorstep and, with a burst of confidence and purpose, wheels himself outside and across the street to ring the doorbell. The sound catches Mary off guard and she takes the noose off her neck to answer the door, finding a gleeful Len and her package. Len returns to his home triumphant as Mary finds Max's letter and his Noblet collection. Some time later, and with her new baby, Mary travels to New York and climbs the stairs of Max's apartment building. She finds his apartment and opens the unlocked door. Within, she finds the Noblets playing on the tv and Max leaning back on his sofa, having passed away peacefully that morning. As she sits beside him, Mary follows his gaze upward and is astonished to see that Max has pasted her letters all over the ceiling. She cradles her baby as she notes to herself that Max smells of licorice and old books while tears roll down her cheeks.

Tags: comedy, psychological, psychedelic, humor, philosophical, romantic, entertaining, sentimental

Review:
There's a constant stream of humour (ironic, black, childish), and I really enjoyed the small perfect touches on growing up in an Australian suburb in the 70's and 80's, and the depiction of grey New York, as it appears to the easily frightened Max. The animation is constantly a joy to watch, and I highly recommend seeing it on the big screen where it can be properly appreciated in all it's hand-made glory..
This is made even more remarkable not only as it's made using stop motion animation but also because of the characters and subject matter it tackles.Mary is an 8 year old outcast living in the suburbs of Melbourne.
It meant that in a critical moment I was thinking of Kate Winslet up to no good instead of connecting with Mary & Max. But this is more a personal concern and if that's the weakest thing about the film, it's doing pretty well.
Gradually, as they send each other letters, Mary and Max's relationship develops and we begin to learn more about their past and their heartache and insecurities of being alone.Following the short animated film, Harvey Krumpet, director Adam Elliot has constructed his first full feature claymation picture, displaying as much skill as many of the major mainstream studios.
Yet there are moments of poignancy too, such as where Mary describes her difficulty at school as she is teased for the birthmark on her forehead, that provide the film's screenplay with a subtext - no matter how simple – about isolation and the need for friends.The use of Barry Humphries' voice over to convey much of the story is initially highly annoying and intrusive.
You don't Find Much stuff like this.Its would get a rating of Pg-13 because of sex related material but I think every Children of 10+ should see this because the sex related material is kept very implicit.I hope It will get Nominated for best Animation for year 2011, Best screenplay and best picture as well.I have much more to say but since I have to review lot more movies I will just tell ya: I just Love It.9.5/10.
Oscar winning (and proudly gay) animation artist Adam Elliot's acclaimed clay-mation feature film "Mary & Max" is astoundingly rewarding wonderful entertainment on the big screen.
It's an intriguing tale, starting in the mid seventies, of the ongoing true friendship of two long distance pen-pals, younger Mary in rural Australia and older Max in the rat-race of New York City.
A significant element of the story involves Max's experience of living with Asperger Syndrome, knowing painfully full well that he senses the world in a radically different way to most.
Mary and Max is a brilliant, entertaining work of visual art combined with depth and grace.There was a couple of moments when I raised eyebrows at certain things that didn't fit correctly for the late seventies, such as the mention of Stephen Hawking as well as cigarette patches (which debuted in the early 90's) but otherwise this laugh out loud, tear to the eye unique celluloid experience is one of the standouts of the year..
It's therefore refreshing to witness the Australian film Mary and Max (the feature film debut of Adam Elliot, who won an Oscar for his short film Harvie Krumpet), which was created using this claymation method to tell a bizarre, sweet and mature story.
If American Beauty director Sam Mendes collaborated with Aardman Animations, the product would be something like Mary and Max.Based partly on Elliot's own life experiences, Mary and Max is a feature about two people leading a mundane existence on the fringe of society; finding solace only in their heartfelt pen-pal letters to each other.
Thus begins a 20-year correspondence, with their friendship surviving more than the average diet of life's ups and downs.There's plenty of playful narration (almost constant) courtesy of Aussie legend Barry Humphries which gives the film the feel of a children's tale, but Mary and Max is not for kids.
Mary and Max spent a total of five years in the making, with six dedicated animation teams working under Elliot's direction in a converted factory in Melbourne, and each team creating an average of 4 seconds of footage per day.
Adam Elliot's ambitious first feature- length claymation movie is an absolute delight, merging witty laughs with heartfelt emotion to generate this genuinely moving slice of animation.
"Mary and Max" is a difficult movie to review.A good place to begin is by pointing out that Adam Elliot painstakingly created a broken world here.
It is a world not governed by a loving God, but by chance.By chance, Max Jerry Horovitz has asperger's syndrome.By chance, Mary Daisy Dinkle was born with a birth mark that looks like a poo stain, has an alcoholic mother, and stumbles upon a stray rooster.By chance, the two become pen pals.Mary and Max's lives and relationship with one another are at the heart of movie.
War, poverty, alcoholism, bullying, obesity, mind-numbing careers, distrust, distorted body images, suicide, mental illness, loneliness, half-hearted self-help books - heck, even siphoning off charitable donations is covered in a quick 80 minutes.One of Elliot's most impressive accomplishments in the movie is the pace: we feel the sluggishness and lethargy of the two main characters.Yet, Elliot also treats us to many disarmingly hilarious scenes.
I honestly don't know what to make of it.In my opinion, "Mary and Max" is a work of high art and one of the finest movies I have seen in a long time.
The film is somewhat grim, funny, and heartfelt, something that this type of animation is rarely scene with.Five years later, Elliot comes back with his first feature film Mary and Max. As impressed as I was with Harvie Krumpet I was doubly impressed with this one.
He uses colors to define the two different continents, giving Australia brown and earthy tones while New York is black, white, and everything in between, with the exception of a red pompom that Mary sends Max. Much like their separate worlds, they both blend in as if no one else would notice them.
A beautiful, funny and touching story that delivers on all fronts of meaningful film-making.In comparable style to Wallace and Gromit, the film uses it's charming and silly style to great effect by relating two unique characters.
Now, with Elliot's latest film, I have a chance to finally watch a feature-length version of his wonderful and very strange work.The film begins in Australia and concerns a very lonely girl named Mary.
It does it by a masterful combination of uncannily perfect story telling, imaginative self-deprecating characters, well-managed timing in plot development, a fair amount of humor balanced with endearing bittersweetness, and wonderful animation that serves the story's needs perfectly.The story is one of contesseration by a young girl in Australia of a randomly chosen older man in the USA.
I think the movie didn't receive the publicity it deserved, unlike other animation films produced by bigger companies (and advertising budgets).I was extremely touched and so I suggest that everyone should watch it and reflect on the matters it refers to..
Through the events in Mary's life, the movie sets up what could have been a moving message about accepting your own flaws, but the impact is spoiled when they hit you over the head with the message, via narration by both Damien and Max. Towards the end, Max's lengthy letter about being happy with yourself is so heavy-handed that it eliminates any possibility of thought-provoking subtlety.
If you just want something out of the ordinary, you can enjoy Mary & Max, but if you expect true depth (not phony depth where the filmmakers comment "oh, loneliness sure is sad!") or richness of writing, you will come away disappointed..
The characters add a lot to the film as well, the title characters are sweet, emphatic and engaging, with Mary very cute and Max endearing in his own way, and the audience sympathises with them and their predicaments, while the writing is both funny and poignant and the haunting, affecting and personal story packs a real emotional punch on its own and is thematically quite deep.
It tells the story of a lonely girl named Mary who lives with her problematic parents and who creates a friendship with a man named Max who lives across the world from her.
The stop animation has that new-generation of clean and smooth action similar to Coraline and it it very well executed here.So the story in a nutshell is about a dumpy little girl in Australia whose life is made miserable by a Sherry-saturated mother and garage-dwelling taxidermy hobbyist father who by their lack of interest, leave poor Mary to her own imagination and devices.
While the story is not intended to be a comedy, there are some very original and funny comic elements, especially those of poor Henry the goldfish.Anyhow, we later see Mary's futile attempt to understand Max's Asperger's through the lens of wanting to "fix the world", as many a young adult wants to do and we see a rift come between the two as Max, content to accept his life but resentful for Mary wanting to "fix" him, recedes into himself.There is a resolution to their rift and the ending is rather touching.
An Australian stop-motion animated film about a dumpy little girl (voiced by Toni Collette) who randomly chooses a name in a New York phone book and writes him a letter.
A beautiful script with some amazing characters, depicting the most expressive situations with ease and sometimes triumphing over the real human emotions as well.i never thought an animation( clay model) movie can create so much of an impact as far as depicting emotions, but now i would rate it as the best i have ever seen.i have known characters like Mary , and tears roll down the eyes remembering them.A Blizzard wrapped in sunshine is what you can expect.
This film is a genuine masterpiece; a unique, stark aesthetic as framework for an engaging exchange between two incredibly complex and lovable characters, the socially awkward Mary and Max, who communicate via letter across different countries.
It pleasantly reminds me of Forrest Gump, in the sense that we fall in love with these characters and their naivety because they make us laugh and feel elated, so that when misfortune befalls them the empathy coupled with drastic change of tone hits you like a wrecking ball.Although many people claim there is no such thing as a perfect film, I don't believe so.
The visual gags are good and often surprising, and the story enters areas usually left untrodden by animation.The technical aspects themselves are below Aardman or Laika standard, but efficient; what keeps this film from getting a better grade from me is the drab colour palette and overall depressing tone - don't get me wrong, those are parts of life, too - but you can overdo everything and nearly 90 minutes are a bit much for my taste.
I love animated movies but when I saw the posters it was not quite the way that I expected But when I saw the whole tale about marry and max I got amazed.
Mary and Max is a story of two lonely people residing miles away from each other and become unlikely friends through constant letter writing.
The voice-actors also did fine job especially Philip Hoffman as Max. I liked the movie but it felt kind of repetitive after 1-2 conversations though the letters between Mary and Max. Also it tries to pity its characters a bit too much.
Well, let's just say that after five minutes, I was entranced by its beautiful ugliness and if I had one intimate conviction is that it would not disappoint me and that every second of it was to be savored like a tiny bite of my favorite chocolate.That film is Adam Elliott's "Mary and Max", and it's so profoundly and deeply human that it drowns you into its story.
Little did she know that she had just started a twenty-year correspondence and one of the most beautiful on-screen friendships, and friendships are never as believable and solid as when they're slowly built by the passing of time, and step by step, the letters Max will receive from Mary will become an indispensable part of his life.
Elliot calls his films Clayography, a portmanteau for 'clay animated biography', each taking 5 years to materialize.In short, the story is a bittersweet tale of friendship that will have you in a mix of emotions come the movie's end.
"Mary and Max" is an animation movie in we watch two pen friends Mary who is a lonely girl living in the suburbs of Melbourne and Max who is an obese man living in New York.
One more thing that I liked in this movie was the beautiful voice of Philip Seymour Hoffman as Max Jerry Horovitz who I believe that his voice fit so well in this character.
One more thing that it had to being mentioned is about the direction made by Adam Elliot and it was really good.Finally I have to say that "Mary and Max" is a must see animation movie from which I believe everyone can gain something because after watching this movie you reconsider many things about life in general and not only..
Mary an 8 year old girl living in Australia strikes upon a new friendship with 44 year old Max Horowitz, a lonesome dweller of noisy suburbs of New York in a very peculiar manner.And they share their lives, problems, solutions, chocolates, ups and downs with each other and us.The movie is simple yet persuasive stop motion animation with a strong narrative and strong portrayal of emotions.The narration is simple, jolly yet intense.
This amazingly detailed clay-animated (á la Wallace & Gromit with a grayish twist!), but QUITE adult fairy tale is one of those: Unhappy 8-year-old Mary in a small Australian town, writes a chance letter in the 1970's to middle-aged obese man, Max in NYC, USA - and so an unlikely pen-pal-correspondence begins...
When he receives Mary's letter, he is enchanted by it and both start a friendship that lasts more than twenty years.The story seems a bit silly, but the film story deals with a lot of deep issues such as anxiety, depression, suicide and even Asperger Syndrome - black-humor is also present.
Mary's life is brown because it is uninteresting and boring; Max's life is gray because it is depressing, sad and without any hope or perspective of getting better.So, with no colored images and no happy characters, this is not the kind of movie to show to children – most of them wouldn't understand it.
The plot revolves around their notes to each other and how their lives change because of their friendship with each other, so the movie does have slower parts about halfway through and can get a bit boring.Either way Mary and Max is a beautiful film that will most likely depress you after watching it.
The story continues for at least 15 to 20 years for Mary to grow up, go to college, write a thesis on Max's affliction, and publish a book.The movie is not all fun, in fact it has some dark aspects to it, but in the end is a statement on relationships and how two strangers can often reach out to each other and something good can come of it.I enjoyed it more than I thought I would..
I watched the film " Mary and Max " ,beautiful Australian animation by Adam Elliot, based on a true story.
Even so, once I started watching this movie, it pulled me in like a close friend I had known for all my life, and told me to let my tears flow and be content.It's hard to explain what makes Mary and Max different from other tragedies or tragicomedies.
The animation, the Australian references, the black humor, all combine to create one of the most sentimental films of all time.Mary And Max truly is an original film.
A tale of friendship between two unlikely pen pals: Mary, a lonely, eight-year-old girl living in the suburbs of Melbourne, and Max, a forty-four-year old, severely obese man living in New York.At the outset, I was a bit skeptical of the high praise this film has received and how it continues (in 2015) to stay on the IMDb Top 250, despite competing with so many classics and the disproportionately-rated superhero movies.
Telling with great humor, warmth, insight, and a certain darkness, and above all a unique style, it is the story of a small girl in suburban Australia, who is desperately lonely and an outsider, who, by random chance, befriends as a penpal a middle-aged Jewish Asperger: Max.This is not a charming film (though it has heart) it is a film about radical honestly, and a stark reminder that contact is what makes us human.The fact that it is also a true story just tops off a truly original piece of work.
Telling with great humor, warmth, insight, and a certain darkness, and above all a unique style, it is the story of a small girl in suburban Australia, who is desperately lonely and an outsider, who, by random chance, befriends as a penpal a middle-aged Jewish Asperger: Max.This is not a charming film (though it has heart) it is a film about radical honestly, and a stark reminder that contact is what makes us human.The fact that it is also a true story just tops off a truly original piece of work.
But what I really like about Mary and Max is that it explores the lifelong questions of friendship, loneliness, anxiety and even suicide in a way that is as accessible to young teens as it is ground shaking for adults - it is rare that you find a film that is so honest and good natured..