Mary and Max (2009)

Directed by::     Adam Elliot
Produced by::     Melanie Coombs
Written by ::    Adam Elliot
Narrated by::     Barry Humphries
Starring::     Bethany Whitmore
Toni Collette
Philip Seymour Hoffman
Eric Bana
Barry Humphries
Music by ::    Dale Cornelius
Editing by::     Bill Murphy
Distributed by ::    Icon Entertainment International
Release date(s)::    

    15 January 2009 (Sundance Film Festival)
    9 April 2009 (Australia)

Running time::    90 minutes

Mary and Max is a movie with a soul, a beautiful piece of animation done in stop motion and clay figures that move us so get your characters seem to become flesh and blood.
The film is based on a true-lived by the director Adam Elliot-but no longer has that air of story, a story unusual, beautiful and moving but dotted with irony and black humor that make it amazing.
It all starts in a sepia color Australia, Mary Daisy Dinkle, living in the suburbs of the city of Melbourne. Mary is a lonely 8 year old girl trapped in a sordid reality: an alcoholic mother and kleptomaniac, and depressive and indifferent father finds solace only practicing taxidermy in his garage.
Mary has no friends, she is 'weird' and ugly, and has a birthmark on his forehead from which mock all that is colored 'poop'. All I want is to have Mary someone you can share your feelings. One day he decides to look for a pen pal, and randomly pick a name in a telephone directory of North America that is in the office.
Fate wants the other person chosen is unusual. Max Jerry Horovitz, an obese middle-aged Jewish and attending sessions 'eaters anonymous' because of his addiction to chocolate. Max suffers from Asperger syndrome, a neurological disorder similar to autism. Lonely and depressed, you feel lost and intimidated in an obscure New York in black and white, a city too aggressive for a person like him.
As the film progresses, these two beloved characters get excited and move us with each of his letters, where they share their thoughts, experiences and feelings.

Through this exchange of letters between the two will emerge strong and sincere friendship which is consolidated over the years. In line with this relationship we see how both evolve and cope very differently to their own reality. Social rejection, suicide, depression, alcoholism, agoraphobia and other psychotic illnesses are some of the issues addressed in the film.
Another of the strengths that have Mary and Max is the exquisite and haunting beauty that the director uses a more narrative element, emphasizing the two worlds of the protagonists. In contrast to the world of Mary, which always provides a palette of browns, grays find his hometown Max, creating a universe in the film monochrome only punctuated by the color red, which incidentally appears to highlight elements full of symbolism, as the ruby ​​lips of Mary the mother or the cap pompom Max.
Adam Elliot molded with a fierce humanism this artwork plasticine, telling the story of two people who make writing a shelter and friendship against all possible evils. In Mary and Max's illness, alcoholism, loneliness, misery, suicide, depression, psychotropic drugs, abandonment and cruelty ... but there is also friendship, warmth, tenderness and humor, humor in all colors.
I do not know if this beautiful story like everyone wants to have a moral story, but the director, without being banal speeches about friendship, opens the door to a world where deep connections can arise despite the distance and differences, showing that miracles exist and happen around us, often without us noticing.