27th August 2018
Warning may contain spoilers. Trigger warning: Suicide, death, obesity, bullying
“Mary Dinkles’ eyes were the colour of muddy puddles and her birthmark was the colour of poo”. This is the opening line from the film “Mary and Max” and the minute I heard it I knew that I was going to love this film. It is a Claymation animated film by Adam Elliot and is the story of two central characters. The story begins with Mary as a bullied, lonely eight year old girl living in Australia with her alcoholic, kleptomaniac mother and a father who is so obsessed with taxidermy that he ignores her. Mary’s a bright young girl who has no friends apart for her pet chicken and finds joy in only two things – “The Noblets”, an TV show whose characters you can buy as collectibles and eating sugary foods.
Max is an overweight, forty something, Jewish Autistic who lives on his own in an apartment in New York. He too is extremely lonely despite the company of his visually impaired neighbour, who helps him out from time to time. He also has a pet goldfish named Henry the 8th. Max struggles with his emotions and day to day life events. We see this at his overweight anonymous meetings and through the many jobs he has had during his life. Like Mary he has a great love for the TV show “The Noblets” and an intense love for sweet food especially chocolate hotdogs which account for his weight issues.
The two characters’ worlds collide when Mary randomly writes to Max to get answers to some of the questions that nobody will answer for her. Max writes back and the two begin to correspond regularly. The communications continue for many years and we see Mary grow up into a young women. The film revolves around this pen pal friendship and tells the story of the ups and downs that both characters go through in a world that they don’t fit into or that they feel they don’t fit into. The basis being that sometimes they have each other’s support whilst at other times they make mistakes and they don’t have each other. Whatever happens in life, they are both better off communicating and using their long distance friendship as reinforcement that things will be ok.
The animation in the film is gorgeous. The colour palette is light sepia with the occasional splash of colour. For example Max’s tongue is a vivid red. This along with a simple but effective musical score makes it a joy to watch. The story is very dark at times and deals with serious issues such as death, suicide, bullying, Autistic meltdowns, loneliness, phobias, mistakes for the wrong reasons and obesity. However, despite much darkness there are moments of laugh out loud comedy, sweet moments of joy and some real heart warming scenes. My favourite being when Max says he can never cry, so in her next letter back Mary sends him a vial of her own tears. This made me feel really emotional when watching it and the film is full of these little moments. If you had to describe Mary and Max in one word, “Bittersweet” would be the one to use.
My only two criticisms of the film is that perhaps it is a little bit too long and there is a slight drag in the middle. It is very slight for me though but having read what other people have written about it I can see why they have said similar things. The other thing is that the positives of being Autistic could have been shown a little bit more. There is a scene which shows Max being extremely good at puzzles and personally I thought this was too brief and could have been brought into the story better. I watched the film because it was on a “films with Autism” list and despite this minor thing I thought it portrayed Max spot on as someone being Autistic. I mean the way that society and even Mary responds to him is accurate and we see why he is misunderstood. It should not be forgotten though that this is also a coming of age story for Mary who we see grow up in the film.
The voice actors in the movie, Toni Colette and the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, are superb too. Writing this, it is hard to find any faults although I appreciate that this type of animated film will not be to everyone’s liking. To conclude with though, I would highly recommend that you give “Mary and Max” a viewing. However be warned it is a rollercoaster of emotions. But if you stop and think about it, so is life. I am sure that everyone watching this movie whether they are Autistic or Neurotyopical will find moments that they can relate to. I certainly did. Rating 9/10.