Mary and Max (2009)

Mary and Max is an Australian stop motion animation film made in 2009. The film was written and directed by Adam Elliot. It is a combination of both drama and comedy with the voices of Toni Collette, Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Eric Bana. The narration of the film was done by Barry Humphries and the music was created by Dale Cornelius. The running time is 90 minutes and made $1.7 million in box office. It is based on a true story where Adam Elliot had a pen pal in New York City who he wrote to for twenty years which gave him the inspiration for this film. The film is about two pen pals, Mary who is living in Mount Waverly, Australia and Max in New York City, USA. The film begins by telling the audience about eight year old Mary Daisy Dinkle who longs to have a friend to confide in about her life and finds a long distance friend in forty four year old Max. Throughout their life, they write back and forth to each other which starts when Mary has many questions that she would like answered. As the film goes on and they both get older she tells him about her parents, asks for relationship advice and writes a book about Asperger’s Syndrome which Max suffers from. Max talks about his previous jobs, dealing with Asperger’s Syndrome, his neighbour Ivy and his love of chocolate. Their friendship grows and they both wish to meet each other and while they wait and save up the money to make the trip, they send each other photographs and drawings, presents and tips and advice for meal times. The animation is very good with great detail and I loved the catchy music which is a contrast as the storyline is quite depressing as both of Mary’s parents die as well as Ivy, the neighbour and also Max at the end of the end of the film. When the film is focused in New York City with Max the colour of the animation is quite dull as it is grey and black which could reflect his mood. Even though I liked the animation and the music, I thought that the majority of the film dragged on because in most of the scenes they were writing to each other as pen pals which seemed to interfere with the flow of the film. I therefore found it hard to concentrate fully. I am unsure as to who I aim this film at, whether its children or young adults as you need a certain sense of humour to find this film funny. There are many different themes in this film whether its depression, neglect, suicide or loneliness and could relate to many different people. Overall, I would rate Mary and Max three stars. There was a big contrast between the happy music and the disheartening scenes. Personally, I would have preferred the characters in the film to have a more colourful personality and also felt that the voice over for the character of Max lacked light and shade and believe that the tone of his voice could have been sharper.