Mary and Max owes a lot to Harry and Maude. It is an incredibly bittersweet tale about two lonely people, one a girl and one a middle aged man, who
form a friendship. It wavers between poignant and absurd. There's a childlike naivete
and innocence to both Mary, a little Australian girl, and Max, a New
York Jew with Asperger's syndrome, but also cut with a sense of cynicism and black comedy. The fact that this is stop-motion animation, beautifully done
in black and white with small touches in color is a boon. Had this been shot live action, it would
just be dreary and melancholy. But because it's happening to goofy
little clay figures, it gives it just the right sense of
detachment where you can love the characters for all their foibles and
the awful experiences they endure rather than feel dragged through their
own private hells. It's not a happy little film, but it's certainly a rich and
sweet one.
Young Mary Dinkle (Bethany Whitmore and Toni Collette) is a friendless
eight-year-old with a pet rooster named Ethel, a frumpy pair of glasses,
and a birthmark on her forehead. Her father fills
teabags and spends his spare time doing amateur taxidermy in a shed, and
her mother is an alcoholic shoplifter who steals and drinks to excess. Her grandfather
tells her that in Australia babies are found at the bottom of beer
glasses. Wondering how babies are born in America, she chooses a name at random from a phone book and sends
her first letter, along with a crayon self-portrait, to Max Horowitz.
Max (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is a 44-year old overweight Jew
living alone in his post WW II apartment in New York. He attends Overeaters
Anonymous meetings, which are his only social interactions. He keeps
numerous pets, watches children's programs, and eats a steady diet of kugel and latkes. He
receives Mary's letter, and writes back to her on his old typewriter,
telling him about himself and his theories on life. Their friendship is not linear and they both have psychiatric issues that interfere with their communication and their ability to get pleasure from life. Theirs is not a romance but they have a major impact on each others lives. This is not a cartoon for children, but one not to be missed.
Wednesday, January 14, 2015
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