Film Review: Mary and Max


Fig 1. Mary and Max film poster (2009)

The Australian film Mary and Max (2009) was directed and written by Adam Elliot and tells the story of two pen pals as they go through their challenging lives at a time when other peoples’ problems were not something that you would inquire about, be it lifestyle or mental.

The film starts off in 1976 with young Mary Daisy Dinkle who lives in Australian with her distant father and alcoholic mother. One day she decides to write to someone out of a phone book to ask them about their life in New York, that person is Max Jerry Horowitz. Max himself is surprised by her letter and suffers an anxiety attack due to his social problems, but he decides to write back to Mary and soon the two become friends. As the years go by they learn to except each other, and themselves, for who they are and that their worlds are perfect even if it is not perfect.

As the beginning of the film suggests it is based off a true story but it’s not completely clear how much of it is real. One part that is true is the idea of two people writing to each other from Australia and New York, the base of the idea for this is from Elliot himself and his pen pal who he has been writing to for years in New York.

The film was made by using stop motion animation and took about just over a year to film. By making the film in stop motion the makers were able to portray Max and Mary’s world the way that they would have seen it. Max’s world is cramped and in tones of grey while Mary’s is shown as being more open and in a sepia tone effect (see fig 2.). “I quickly worked out that if there are these two worlds we should really separate them by colour and of course New York is a very concrete place, a gray world. Australia in the 70s to me was very brown…We wanted to make Australia dehydrated, like a nicotine stain – that was the colour palette we decided on.” (Buckmaster, 2009) By making the two worlds different colours the viewer can understand that there are two different stories playing out when Mary and Max are not writing to each other.

Fig 2. Two worlds meet (2009)
Another reason as to why it is animated is because it helps to lighten the mood of the film as it does explore some dark themes such as neglect, mental illness, depression and suicide. If the film had been made using real life actors, then the topics that it looks at would have made it a very heavy film and might have made it too difficult to watch. “Had this been shot live action, it would just be dreary and melancholy.” (Prisco, 2011)

It also helps to bring another dimension to the characters as their designs are exaggerated to fit in with the way that the main characters would see them, it also helps the viewer understand the characters a bit better aside from what they are told about them. So, it is easy to understand if they are good natured or if their behaviour is seen as being odd though Mary and Max’s point of view.

Mary and Max has received with a number of positive reviews from critics even if it didn’t have a theatrical release in the US, it was how even shown at a number of American film festivals and was short listed for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. “It's a story that might not be expected to work but it does because Elliot in turn loves his characters and their worlds. He has learned how to tell big stories in miniature settings. The quality of the animation here is outstanding; the quality of the filmmaking is even better.” (Byrnes, 2009)

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