Review of Mary and Max (2009) by Lyzette G — 16 Mar 2011

The story starts in the year 1976. Mary Dinkle is an eight-year-old misfit, who lives in Australia with her mother, who is an alcoholic, and her father, who seems to care for nothing more than his job and his hobby in taxidermy. Outside of her pet rooster, Mary has no friends. One day, Mary rips a page off of a New York telephone book, and writes a letter to the first name she sees.

This letter is sent to 44-year-old Max Horowitz, of New York City. Max is obese, loves chocolate, and has a then little-known condition known as Asperger's syndrome. Like Mary, Max is also alone. Thus, this first exchange of letters is the beginning of a pen-pal connection that spans nearly two and a half decades.

The majority of animated films to appear every so often are usually from the likes of big name Hollywood companies (Pixar, Dreamworks, etc.) or are anime films from Japan. This film is neither of the two - yet it soars to tremendous lengths, and is generally just a really beautiful, devastating, really well-done movie.

There is a good amount of criticism for this film's usage of narrative, as nearly the entire film is either told through the characters' voice-overs or through third-person narration. In my own opinion, it brought a lot to the table that would have otherwise been lost. The way I see it, the narrator could be sort of be seen as the voice of some supreme being. With Max being an atheist and Mary potentially being too young to fathom an existence of a god, the unnamed narrator tells their stories for them - as if there were someone looking out for the both of them, since no one else could. Also, the vast amount of distance that separated the two title characters makes it hard for there to be a clear-cut form of communication between the two, besides their multiple letters. The voice-overs could be seen to potentially fill this gap; as a result, the little dialogue that is actually used in the film is obvious, and thus, forms a greater impact on the audience.

It's quite apparent that this animated film is definitely not meant for children. Although there are a seemingly endless amount of antics the characters get themselves into that could be entertaining to the child's eye, the subjects of discussion that are frequently brought up (including sex, death, mental illness, depression, alcoholism, etc.) are ones that only much older viewers could deal with. Although many such topics are difficult to fully wrap one's mind around, they are dealt with marvelously in the film, with just the right amount of melancholy and comic humor where it is needed. Though it could be noticeably childish at times, the majority of its humor is black, dry, and sometimes even ironic. For these reasons, the script has to be one of the greatest achievements of this film. Although I couldn't bring myself to call any movie "perfect", it is even more difficult to not use that phrase to describe the wonderful, cream-of-the-crop scripting this film possesses.

This film is definitely not an easy watch. Although many have compared the clay animation style to Nick Park's Wallace and Gromit films, the overall feeling of the film is significantly much more darker. Our two protagonists are exactly the type of people we would not expect in a movie. Their lives are depressing, and not many details are left for us to guess; they are just given to us. They both have had their shares of ups and (mostly) downs, many of which are shown to us explicitly and intimately. As a result, this film comes across as extremely personal, and we find ourselves bonding with the characters; possibly even wanting to help them out of their unhappiness.

Overall, this movie is quite bittersweet. Despite how different from the rest of the world they seem to be, Mary and Max, though rejected by everyone, have accepted each other. The amazing thing is how the two never once pitied themselves or the other for their faults. They learn to relate with each other through their personal oddities, and, as a result, we appreciate them as well. In general, this is just a whimsical and humorous, yet candid and heart-wrenching film about the highs and lows of real life and friendship, expressed through the most wonderful claymation feature I have ever seen.