25) MARY AND MAX

Director: Adam Elliot
Stars: Toni Collette, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Eric Bana, Barry Humphries
Year: 2009
Rating: NR

I had been wanting to see this film for some time, just based on its trailer and overall look; I've always liked the Claymation style of animated films, have since childhood, and this one, Mary and Max, chronicles a 20+-year friendship that begins when a lonely, homely eight-year-old girl only child in Australia, Mary Daisy Dinkle (voiced, as an adult, by Toni Collette) reaches out, via a New York City phonebook in a local post office, and writes a letter to Max Horowitz (Philip Seymour Hoffman), asking him to be her pen pal.

Max - a 44-year-old depressed and overweight New Yorker with Asberger's syndrome - is both freaked out and intrigued by the letter. Max's New York is done all in tones of black and gray, where Max lives pretty much friendless with his goldfish, snacking on favorite delicacies like chocolate hot dogs. He answers Mary's letter, going into a long discussion answering her questions and talking about his own life - and Mary, when she receives the letter, is nothing short of delighted to have found a new friend.

She writes back and over the next twenty years the two share their lives with each other; Mary lives with an alcoholic mother and passive father, and has a crush on a neighbor boy who doesn't see her in the same way even as she gets a job distributing leaflets so she can save money to have her birthmark - which is "the color of poo" - removed. Max deals with the anger issues and high mood swings caused by the Asberger's, while discussing his neighbor lady and search for a dream job ... and the constant need for a new goldfish when he accidentally keeps killing the one he has. A few misunderstandings strain the friendship along the way, but overall Mary and Max is about the bond of two lonely people across two continents, who become dear friends sharing advice and their life experiences even though they may never actually meet in person.

Somber and bittersweet and touching, viewers will relate to the issues Mary and Max discuss in their letters, and grow to care about both of them because we can all relate to feelings of isolation and loneliness and being part of a world that doesn't always understand us. It's a wonderful, effective, quirky (even strange) little film that deserves to be seen; beautifully done and emphasizing the truth behind the quote given at the film's end: "God gave us relatives. Thank God we can choose our friends." **** - Reel Awesome