Mary and Max

Oh my I love this movie.

There's Mary (Toni Collette) and Max (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) and there's all the silly people that surround them that don't quite understand.

Mary is a 9 year old girl living in Australia and Max is a man with aspergers living in New York City. And he does not like it when the woman from his weight-loss class makes moves on him. Or cigarette butts. One day Mary decides that she wants to be someone's pen pal and she randomly picks Max's name out of the phone book. Most of the film is narrated by the two of them and their letters to each other.

Mary's (Collette) mother is an alcoholic and her father is physically present but emotionally absent, and also obsessed with taxidermy (as all good absent fathers should be). Mary really likes to eat sweetened condensed milk which is disgusting and adorable, but mostly disgusting. Max (Hoffman) really likes chocolate bars. Mary and Max both are obsessed with a children's television show that involves little troll like dolls (and Max has collected all of them). Mary has a splotch on her face that she is self-conscious of, and Max is habitually overweight. They are, a match made in heaven.

They write to each other for years. And live their lives thousands of miles away from each other, but also together. Max has been through a lot, in and out of hospitals, attempting suicide, and confused about his disability. Mary is going through a lot always. But for awhile things fly right for her. She gets rid of her splotch with surgery, gets married to the boy next door, and writes a best-selling novel about aspergers and Max.

However, Max hates the book, and feels betrayed by Mary, her husband turns out to be gay, and she realizes the splotch was a part of her that she loved and can never retrieve again. Basically shits looking pretty bleak for Mary. She becomes an alcoholic (just like her mother, drinking cooking sherry which is the saddest drink of choice alcoholic or non-alcoholic). And she plays with the idea of suicide. But just when she's about to kick the bucket (literally/figuratively) she gets some mail from Max, who hasn't written in years. He forgives her, and sends all his trolls as a sign of solidarity, also he won the lottery.

Hoffman and Collette do the voices in a very sincere manner. They are so innocent in the tenor of their voices. Every time they speak it's soft, kind, and worried. You can hear how much life has beaten them up, and how much they need each other. When Max and Mary finally meet in real life I suggest preparing yourself for some real tears. Real talk, real tears.

Adam Elliot's script (he's also the director) is written with tenderness and a true understanding of the problems faced by not only by people with aspbergers but children who have been neglected and bullied. Not only is the plot adorable, the film is in fucking CLAYMATION. They couldn't have made it cuter, and sweeter if they tried. I love it when I can see the fingerprints in claymation figures. I love claymation, and it was done so well in this film. It's such a painstaking process (taking hours to shoot seconds of film) and it's so worth whenever it's done well.

Take a look and let me know your thoughts.


~Alena Ivanov


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