(AUS - 2009)

Mary and Max is an Australian animated film, written and directed by Adam Elliot, with the voices of Bethany Whitmore (young Mary Daisy Dinkle), Toni Collette (older Mary), Philip Seymour Hoffman (Max Jerry Horovitz) and Eric Bana (Damien). It was nominated to Annecy Internacional Animated Film Festival 2009 (Cathegory: Feature Film Award), Asia Pacific Screen Award 2009 (Best Animated Feature Film), Australian Director's Guide 2009 (Best Director in a Feature Film), Berlin International Film Festival 2009 (Cathegory: Generation 14plus - Best Feature Film) and for the Grand Prize of Ottawa International Animation Festival 2009 and won all of the five prizes.

Mary is an 8-year-old Australian girl, whose mother is an alcoholic and whose father would rather stay with his stuffed birds than give her some care. Through this not very kind atmosphere (Vera, Mary's mom, likes to "borrow" things - one of the very frequent euphemisms in this film hehe), Mary finds the adress of a 44-year-old man who lives in New York and becomes his pen pal.

As you may presume, this 44-year-old man is called Max, an atheist guy who doesn't feel comfortable with romantic intimity. At first, they tell each other aspects of their daily life and the letter exchange works like a therapy for Max, who has always had a lonely and complexed life for being a bit over the ideal weight. He helps Mary with his experiences as a kid and she offers him the view of a child for his troubles.

Surprisingly, there are Mary typical childish questions (and not the complexity of adult problems) that develop paranoia crisis in Max. Their mail connection is broken and they have to continue their lives without each other, which is the biggest challenge they face in the film imo. Once Mary is grown and tries to help him, things get even worse and it's almost impossible to think that there will be a solution for such an impasse.

Of course I won't spoil the plot and I'll let you find it out when you get the film and watch it. Mary and Max is about life, love, friendship, and about how we can learn things with people who are very different from us. A funny, sweet, gripping and must-see film!